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MODERN EDUCATORS 
AND THEIR IDEALS 



MODERN EDUCATORS 
AND THEIR IDEALS 



BY 



TADASU MISAWA, Ph.D. 




D. APPLE TON AND COMPANY 
N E W Y O R K M C M I X 



LIBRARY of CONGRESS 
Two Copies Received 

MAK 12 ^W^ 

CLASS fV ^^c- No 

COPY a. 



Copyright, 1909, by 
D. APPLETON AND COMPANY 



Puhlinhf'd March, 1909 



PREFACE 



The present work is intended mainly for students 
of pedagogy in colleges or normal schools, teachers 
and other practical workers in educational fields, and 
those parents who take a special interest in the prob- 
lems of education. It aims to give a general idea of 
the educational views of great philosophers and re- 
formers in modern times, which form the basis of 
the present-day education in its ideals and practice. 
The author's endeavor has been to present the funda- 
mental ideas of these thinkers and epoch makers in 
a concise and coherent form, and with a sympathetic 
interpretation. An academic criticism or amplifica- 
tion of any theories is purposely avoided ; and very 
little is added to what each writer has said for him- 
self, beyond that which was found necessary to make 
the connection of thought clearer and its significance 
more comprehensible to the reader. 

Thus the book practically consists of excerpts from 
the main works of the thinkers here chosen, which 
are either put in their original form or modified by 
the author so as to meet the extent and intent of the 
book. And he believes that, though not always agree- 



vi PREFACE 

iiig with their ideas, he has made himself a faithful 
mouthpiece for each of them. 

The bibliographies attached are by no means meant 
to be exhaustive. They include only those references 
specially consulted by the author as well as those 
wliich were judged to be easily accessible and worthy 
of recommendation to the reader. 

The author wishes to express his sense of great 
indebtedness to President G. Stanley Hall for inspi- 
ration and help in many waj^s, to Professor William 
H. Burnham for suggestions and encouragement, to 
Dr. Arnold L. Gesell for aid in correcting his English, 
and to Dr. Theodate L. Smith for assistance in re- 
vising the manuscript and putting the book through 
the press. 



CONTENTS 



CHAPTER 

I. — Introduction 



II.— John Amos Comenius (1592-1670) . 

III.— John Locke (1632-1704) . 

IV. — Jean Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778) 

V. — Basedow and Kant 

Johann Bernard Basedow (1723-1790) 
Iramanuel Kant (1724-1804) . 

VI.— Heinrich Pestalozzi (1746-1826) . 

VIL— Johann Gottlieb Fichte (1762-1814) 

VIII.— Friedrich Froebel (1782-1852) 



PAGE 

1 

18 
35 
59 

93 
98 

116 

143 

166 

199 

223 



IX. — Johann Friedrich Herbart (1776-1841) 
X.— Herbert Spencer (1820-1903) . 
XI. — Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770-1831) . 245 

XII. — W. T. Harris and G. Stanley Hall 

William Torrey Harris (1835- ) ... 267 
Granville Stanley Hall (1846- ) ... 276 

Index 295 



MODERN EDUCATORS AND 
THEIR IDEALS 



CHAPTER I 

INTRODUCTION 

The Mgean peninsula was the great reservoir of 
ancient civilization into which the cultural stream 
of every nation around the Mediterranean had its 
outlet and from which all subsequent ages of Eu- 
rope have drawn. Therefore without an understand- 
ing of the Greek ideas and ideals of education we 
shall not be able to understand the European ideas 
and ideals of education. As Compayre says, '' in 
respect to education, as in respect to everything else, 
the higher spiritual life of modern nations has been 
developed under the influence of Grecian antiquity " 
(5: p. IS). And we can safely say that, with the 
exception of the ancient Chinese— so misunderstood 
and misrepresented in the West, but the Greek of 
the Orient in my opinion— no nation in antiquity 
represents modern conceptions so nearly as the 
Greek, especially the Athenian. 

The complete and harmonious development of the 
human body and soul in their strength and beauty; 

1 



2 MODERN EDUCATORS 

the perfect and full, yet regulated enjoyment of 
earthly life in its social as well as individual form; 
the attainment of virtue and happiness in and 
through the state— these were the fundamental ideals 
which governed the ancient Greeks. The state not 
only took nearly the sole charge of the education of 
its citizens, but it was in itself the educational and 
educative institution. People were educated through 
their social and communal life. The part played by 
the school was very small ; it had a later and private 
origin, beginning with the rhetoricians and philos- 
ophers, and meeting the need of the few. 

There were two main types in Greek education, 
one represented by the Spartans, the other by the 
Athenians. In the former, the power and vigor of 
personality were emphasized above all else, while in 
the latter, beauty and wisdom were adored. The 
former produced men of action, the latter, persons 
of elegant manners and speech. Efficiency in the 
state service had larger place in the former; individ- 
ual perfection and felicity received more attention 
in the latter. In a word, the Athenian represented 
intellectual and aesthetic culture; the Spartan, mili- 
tary and moral culture. 

In Greece, the Athenian ideals and tendencies 
superseded the Spartan, and Greece iost her vitality 
under the pressure of overintellectualization, over- 
refinement, and the almost necessary consequence, 
overindividualization. But the Spartan ideal re- 
vived in Rome; military and political Rome needed 



INTRODUCTION 3 

men of strength and action for its citizens. So, 
while the Greek philosophy degenerated into Neo- 
Pythagorean and Neo-Platonic mysticism, stern and 
practical stoicism took root in Italy. Roman educa- 
tion was essentially the education of her warriors 
and legislators; physical and mental vigor and cour- 
age, justice,' integrity, and practical sense were to 
be cultivated above everything else; mere knowl- 
edge and effeminate refinement were despised. While 
the Greeks intrusted the education of their children 
largely to the State, the Romans laid great stress 
upon the home training. Not the group life of chil- 
dren among themselves and under adult influences, 
but the personal direction and discipline of parents 
were to be the chief molding power. Rome thus had 
no public institution concerned with the education 
of her children until she began to imitate Greece 
and establish schools for the teaching of grammar 
and rhetoric. Cicero gave voice to the individualistic 
point of view of old Roman education when he said: 
^' Our ancestors did not wish that children should be 
educated by fixed rules, determined by the laws, pub- 
licly promulgated and made uniform for all " (5: 
p. 46). 

The advent of Christianity necessarily introduced 
a new epoch in the tendency of education as well as 
in the general course of social evolution. Its funda- 
mental principles, unity with the absolute, supreme, 
personality as the destiny and possibility of each 
individual, the realization of the kingdom ' of God, 



4 MODERN EDUCATORS 

to be governed by justice, love, peace, and felicity as 
the common aim of the whole body of humanity, 
slioukl have become the higher realization of the 
Greek ideals of life. But Christianity in its historic 
form, as an outgrowth from the Semites, promulgated 
by single-minded enthusiasts, was fated to conflict 
with Hellenic thought. It not only neglected the 
civic and economic life of the state, but con- 
demned, as asceticism crept in, the perfection and 
enjoyment of earthly existence. The natural man 
was evil; passion made the body the source of sin. 
Even the improvement of intellect or taste was con- 
sidered to be contrary to religion. Its God became 
deprived of all His human qualities or content, and 
was made an abstract, negative spirituality. The 
kingdom of God receded to the other world beyond 
the grave or to some imagined distance. It conceived 
everything human and natural as opposed to the 
divine and spiritual, and strove to crush the body 
that the soul might live. Thus instead of a new 
heaven and a new earth, the age of death and dark- 
ness came to be introduced into the European world. 
Education in the Middle Ages was largely educa- 
tion through and for the Church. The reward of the 
victory of Christianity over the pagan world 
through that long-suffering struggle and martyrdom 
was the Church universal, enthroned above all other 
human institutions. The seat of divine authority, 
the ultimate standard of evaluation shifted from the 
state to the Church infallible. Schools were estab- 



INTRODUCTION 5 

lished, universities organized, but in them the young 
generation was trained to be better citizens of a 
future heavenly state or to serve ecclesiastic inter- 
ests. Efficiency in social life or the qualities of indi- 
vidual personality as such were scarcely considered. 

Outside the Church there was constant warfare 
within and among newly risen nations. Neither 
rulers nor the people themselves had time to give 
their attention to the advancement of culture. The 
education of the knights was essentially military; 
that of the masses, limited chiefly to the training 
naturally offered by home occupations and trades. 
The settlement of nations, the rise of free cities, 
more peace and prosperity, necessarily tended to 
arouse an interest in culture. Contact with the Hel- 
lenic and Eastern civilizations through the crusades, 
the discovery of America, the expansion of foreign 
trade, all could not but broaden the mental horizon 
and vitalize the soul. The dialectic education of 
scholasticism, although formal, had sharpened the 
reasoning powers of men. With a new explosion of 
self-consciousness and life impulse, Europe keenly 
realized the pressure of the Church, its dogmatism 
and asceticism. The revolt against its dogmatism was 
the Reformation, the revolt against its asceticism 
was Humanism. 

The Humanistic movement started as the revival 
of the ancient classics. Tired of the dry, attenuated 
Latin of church scholasticism, the student wanted to 
return to the naive, simple, yet beautiful literature 



6 MODERN EDUCATORS 

of the old Roman and Hellenic masters. Weary of 
the sophistical interpretation and disputation of the 
Greek philosophers, he desired to drink directly from 
their untainted source. 

This Renaissance, though mainly literary at its 
beginning, brought back the seemingly exterminated 
spirit and ideals of the ancient world, especially of 
Athens. Man, liberated from the bondage of monastic 
spirituality, returned to the human. The beauty and 
joy of life and the arts were again restored ; learning 
came to be pursued for its own sake. 

But the age of the Renaissance tended to exalt 
intellectual and aesthetic culture at the expense of 
the moral. The revival of Hellenism brought with 
it antireligious tendencies and threatened to bring to 
naught Europe's labor of centuries to build up 
Christian character. This was rescued by the stronger 
sister movement of the Reformation, which united 
in it both the Hellenic and Christian spirit leading 
Christianity to its destined end— namely, to become 
a human religion. Unity of religion and life, heaven 
and earth, divine and human, now enters into the 
consciousness of the race. The dignity of individ- 
ual conscience and reason, the equal destiny of all 
mankind without national, class, or sex discrimina- 
tion, the future grandeur of the race and its earthly 
abode, begin to become the living faith of the West. 
IMediieval Christianity aimed to establish a spiritual 
kingdom beside and beyond tlie earthly one; modern 
Christianity aims at tlie gradual spiritualization of 



INTRODUCTION 7 

the earthly kingdom. Although the above revelation 
or message of Christianity was again submerged 
under the new scholasticism and ecclesiasticism into 
which Protestantism fell, the modern world has 
never lacked men of insight who, from time to time, 
have proclaimed it. 

No great new movement in history can pass with- 
out having its influence in the field of education. 
The Reformation really marks the beginning of 
modern education in the West, though to the Cath- 
olic Church belongs the honor of having preserved 
through the dark ages the treasures of ancient culture 
which made the Renaissance possible. In it we see 
the basis and germs of the fundamental ideas and 
ideals which have governed the education of Christen- 
dom until to-day. Luther is naturally the greatest 
name in this movement and deserves to represent it 
in its educational as well as religious aspect. As 
Compayre says: 

'* The German reformer Luther is, of all his co- 
religionists, the one who has served the cause of 
elementary instruction with the most ardor. He 
not only addressed a pressing appeal to the ruling 
classes in behalf of founding schools for the people, 
but, by his influence methods of instruction were im- 
proved, and the educational spirit was renewed in 
accordance with the principles of Protestantism " 
(5: p. 114). 

If Luther had done nothing else than translate the 
Bible into German, he would have been remembered 



8 MODERN EDUCATORS 

as a great pedagogic figure. Through his trauslation 
the Bi))le became the text-book of the people, not 
only in religion and morality, but also in language 
study. His ])lain, refined style is said to have intro- 
duced a new era in the German language and worked 
toward the unification of the national speech. But 
he did more direct service for the cause of education. 
In 1519 he wrote a sermon on married life, in which 
he appeals to the parents' sense of duty to educate 
their children. Home education should be the basis 
and preparation for school education. True piety, 
better Christian life can be hoped for only by begin- 
ning with the child. It is the duty of all parents 
to devote themselves to their children, and the neg- 
lect of this duty wdll be the heaviest sin. Children 
should be taught and led with reasonable words in- 
stead of blows and stripes. One must be an example 
to them by words, conduct, and life. They must be 
guarded from the weakness and effeminacy which 
comes through indulgence in worldly pleasures. Yet, 
on the other hand, asceticism in the education of 
children is to be avoided. 

Home education, though fundamental, is not suf- 
ficient ; for many parents lack the piety and learn- 
ing, skill and art, time and means to enable them to 
lead their children; therefore w^e need schools and 
teachers. In his address to the magistrates and legis- 
lators, in which he urges them to establish and main- 
tain Christian schools in each city for the education 
of all citizens regardless of rank and sex, Luther 



INTRODUCTION 9 

speaks as if he were proclaiming the oracle of God. 
He was obliged to speak because God opened his 
mouth, nay, God and Christ spoke through his mouth ; 
education of youth was the fight against the devil ; 
the cause of religion and education was one. He 
showed a high estimation of the teacher's profession, 
saying : 

" I tell you, in a word, that a diligent, devoted 
school teacher, preceptor, or any person, no matter 
what is his title, who faithfully trains and teaches 
boys, can never receive an adequate reward, and no 
money is sufficient to pay the debt you owe him; so, 
too, said the pagan, Aristotle. Yet we treat them 
with contempt, as if they were of no account what- 
ever; and all the time, we profess to be Christians. 
For my part, if I were compelled to leave off preach- 
ing and to enter some other vocation, I know not an 
office that would please me better than that of school- 
master, or teacher of boys. For I am convinced that, 
next to preaching, this is the most useful, and greatly 
the best labor in all the world, and, in fact, I am some- 
times in doubt which of the positions is the more hon- 
orable " (12: p. 414). 

But turn your eyes upon the actual state of things, 

and see if schools and teachers are fulfilling their 

honorable missions. * ' Everywhere we have seen such 

teachers and masters, who knew nothing themselves 

and could teach nothing that was good and useful; 

they did not even know how to learn and to teach " 

(5: p. 117). 

Luther's innovation in education was to liberate 
2 



10 MODERN EDUCATORS 

children from this strait-jacketness of instruction 
and discipline, and to bring in the air of freedom, 
cheerfulness, broad-mindedness, and respect for the 
child's growing j^ersonality. ''It is dangerous to 
isolate the young. It is necessary, on the contrary, to 
allow young people to hear, see, learn all sorts of 
things, while all the time observing the restraints and 
rules of honor. Enjoyment and recreation are as 
necessary for children as food and drink " (5: p. 
119). The individuality of the child should be re- 
spected and nourished. ' ' A child intimidated by bad 
treatment is irresolute in all he does. He who has 
trembled before his parents will tremble all his life 
at the sound of a leaf which rustles in the wind " 
(5: p. 119). As to the subject-matter of instruction, 
religion, classical languages and Hebrew, history, 
music, and mathematics should be taught. Luther 
speaks slightingly of the mediaeval learning of philos- 
ophy as * ' the devil 's rubbish, ' ' which was ' ' acquired 
with too great cost, labor, and harm," and wanted 
to substitute for it the study of history, conceived as 
the source of the real knowledge of the world. He 
attaches also a high importance to music, as a means 
of emotional culture, even saying that *' unless a 
schoolmaster know how to sing, I think him of no 
account " (5: p. 119). " Knightly sport " is to be 
encouraged as a means of physical culture. To rem- 
edy "the greatest evil in every place "—i. e., the 
lack of teachers— he emphasizes the urgent need of 
special training for them. The best of the pupils, 



i 



INTRODUCTION 11 

boys and girls, are to be selected, kept a longer time 
in school, given special instructors, and libraries 
opened for their use. The professional training of 
teachers as well as the education of the people is the 
duty of the authorities. 

Thus the Reformation represented by Luther was 
no less an educational than a religious movement. 
It awakened a sense of the worth of the individual; 
the longing for the perfection of personality in its 
all-sidedness, intellectual, moral, and physical, was 
aroused. It stirred the parental and official con- 
science to educate children and citizens. Schools, 
which as an institution were, hitherto, only a part 
of the ecclesiastical system, and chiefly as a means 
of training servants of the Church, now sprang up 
as a coordinate agency in the upbuilding of human- 
ity. The chief aim of the new education was not in 
behalf of the ecclesiastic interests, nor the soul's con- 
cern for heaven or hell, but it was to furnish a city 
with " instructed, reasonable, honorable, and well- 
trained citizens, ' ' in which its prosperity, safety, and 
strength lie. It was for the need of the world, " to 
the end that men may govern the country properly, 
and that women may properly bring up their chil- 
dren, care for their domestics, and direct the affairs 
of their households " (5 : p. 115) . If the Renaissance 
idea of education was aristocratic, the Reformation 
idea is democratic ; if the characteristic of the former 
was literary, that of the latter is civico-economical. 
Born the son of a miner, living the life of the people, 



12 MODERN EDUCATORS 

Luther could not think with philologists that the hu- 
manities alone could meet the whole educational need 
of common citizens. He says : ' ' I by no means approve 
those schools wliore a child was accustomed to pass 
twenty or tliirty years in studying Donatus or Alex- 
ander without learning anything. Another world 
has dawned, in which things go differently. My opin- 
ion is that we must send the boys to school one or 
two liours a day, and have them learn a trade at home 
for the rest of the time. It is desirable that these 
two occupations march side by side " (5: pp. 117- 
118). The religious conception of Church education, 
the humanistic ideal of the Renaissance, the military 
and civic training of knighthood, the industrial claim 
of the home and trade, all find recognition and recon- 
ciliation in Luther's view, and are established as the 
four pillars on which the educational temple of mod- 
ern Christian citizenship rests. 

Fifteen years after the death of Luther the world 
received into its lap another gifted child, this time 
to work out reformation in the field of science. The 
Reformation together with Humanism restored the 
ideal of the total man. But their intellectual outlook 
was still chiefly limited to the attainments of the 
ancient world. Therefore, they soon degenerated into 
a new scholasticism on the one hand, and a linguistic 
formalism on the other. Then came Francis Bacon 
to preach the gospel of knowledge, of true knowl- 
edge. For this *' father of English philosophers '* 
the aim of knowledge *' is no mere felicity of specu- 



INTRODUCTION 13 

lation, but the real business and fortune of the human 
race." Indeed, '' men have entered into a desire of 
learning and knowledge sometimes from a natural 
curiosity and inquisitive appetite; sometimes to en- 
tertain their minds with variety and delight; some- 
times for ornament and reputation, and sometimes 
to enable them to victory of wit and contradiction, 
and most times for lucre and profession" (2: p. 
42). This abuse of learning was the greatest evil 
of the mediaeval and Renaissance scholarship. The 
vocation of scholars is ''to give a true account of 
their gift of reason, to the benefit and use of men " 
2: p. 42). Knowledge must generate, bear fruit; 
her function is to satisfy the needs of human life, 
to increase men's control over Nature, and to enrich 
and ennoble his enjoyments. This can be attained 
not by a mere mastery of vain words and letters, 
or of tricks of the syllogism, but only by humble, 
diligent, and methodical inquiries into the great 
*' volume of God's w^orks." '^ Man is but the serv- 
ant and interpreter of nature: w^hat he does and 
what he knows is only what he has observed of 
Nature's order in fact and thought; beyond this he 
knows nothing and can do nothing. For the chain 
of causes cannot by any force be loosed or broken, 
nor can nature be commanded except by being 
obeyed. And so those twin objects, human knowledge 
and human power, do really meet in one; and it is 
from ignorance of causes that operation fails " ( 13 : 
p. 48). The first-hand experience of living Nature 



14 MODERN EDUCATORS 

and induction from it alone provide us real knowl- 
edge and truth, and nothing else. ' ' It cannot be that 
axioms established by argumentation should avail for 
the discovery of new works; since the subtlety of 
nature is greater many times over than the subtlety 
of argument. But axioms duly and orderly formed 
from particulars easily discover the way to new par- 
ticulars, and thus render science active '* (13: pp. 
46-47). According to this standard of true knowl- 
edge, " all the received systems are but so many 
stage plays, representing worlds of their own crea- 
tion after an unreal and scenic fashion " (13: pp. 
56-57). Our age is far older than that of the ancient 
people. Why should we bear the bondage of imma- 
ture, inexperienced minds? " The wisdom which we 
have derived principally from the Greeks is but like 
the boyhood of knowledge, and has the characteristic 
property of boys : it can talk, but it cannot generate ; 
for it is fruitful of controversies, but barren of 
w^orks " (13: p. 54). Turn your eyes from the an- 
tiquated record of the past to the infinite reality of 
living nature. The key to open its secret is in your 
liands. The sphere of conquest here is vast and 
inexhaustible; its pleasure is noble and insatiable. 

Thus rings out the scientific Sermon on the 
Mount. The real goal is shown, a broad new high- 
way opened ; science being vitalized by reunion witli 
the infinite reality of living nature and the ever- 
progressive life of luimanity marches to her never- 
ending conquest. Knowledge rescued from the depths 



INTRODUCTION 15 

of ignominy and impotence is raised to its heavenly 
seat; the ideal of omniscience, coupled with omnipo- 
tence, has ever since become the aspiration and motive 
power of the modern world. Although Bacon did 
not concern himself with the direct problems of edu- 
cation, a conception such as the above could not but 
introduce a new tendency into it. If we may call 
Luther the father of Protestant education, Bacon 
should be called the father of scientific education, 
both of which, when broadly interpreted, characterize 
the modern period of the Western education. 

Bacon's direct influence in the educational field 
naturally was to be exercised upon the higher insti- 
tutions of learning. But the admittance of his ideas 
and spirit into them was a very slow and hard process. 
In the ' ' advancement of learning ' ' he advocated the 
founding of a rtal university, '' left free to the arts 
and sciences at large," devoted entirely to the free 
investigation and advancement of learning, without 
professional aim or any external restrictions. In 
the '^ New Atlantis," his ideal state, an academy of 
science with its museum and laboratory, stands as 
the center. He also suggested a plan for the coop- 
eration of all European universities. But the time 
was not ripe for all these ideas, nor have his visions 
yet been fully realized. A more immediate effect was 
the inspiration which his new gospel of learning and 
its principles have given to those through whom Eu- 
rope first attained a definite theory of educational 
purpose and art, especially Comenius and Locke. 



16 MODERN EDUCATORS 



REFERENCES 



1. Adamson, John William. Pioneers of Modern Educa- 

tion, 1600-1700. University Press, Cambridge, 
1905. 285 pages. 

2. Bacon, Francis (Viscount St. Albans). The Advance- 

ment of Learning. Third edition, and revised by 
W. A. Wright. Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1885. 
376 pages. 

3. The same. Book I, edited by Albert S. Cook. 

Ginn & Co., Boston, 1904. 145 pages. 

4. The New Atlantis. Edited by G. C. M. Smith. 

University Press, Cambridge, 1900. 72 pages. 

5. CoMPAYRE, Jules Gabriel. History of Pedagogy. 

Translated, with an introduction, notes, and an index, 
by W. H. Payne. Heath & Co., Boston, 1899. 589 
pages. 

6. Davidson, Thomas. Aristotle and Ancient Educational 

Ideals. Scribner, New York, 1897. 256 pages. 

7. Heman, Friedrich. Geschichte der neueren Padagogik. 

Zickfeldt, Osterwieck, 1904. 436 pages. 

8. Heubaum, Alfred. Geschichte des deutschen Bild- 

ungswesens seit der Mitte des siebzehnten Jahr- 
hundcrts. Vol. I. Bis zum Beginn der allgemeinen 
Unterrichtsreform unter Friedrich dem Grossen. 
Weidmann, Berlin, 1905. 402 pages. 

9. Hodgson, Geraldine. Primitive Christian Education. 

T. Clark, Edinburgh, 1906. 287 pages. 

10. Laurie, Simon Somerville. Studies in the History of 

Educational Opinion from the Renaissance. Uni- 
versity Press, Cambridge, 1903. 261 pages. 

11. Monroe, Paul. Source Book of the History of Educa- 

tion for the Greek and the Roman Period. Mac- 
millan Co., London and New York, 1901. 515 



INTRODUCTION 17 

12. A Text-book in the History of Education. Mac- 

millan Co., London and New York, 1905. 772 
pages. 

13. MuNROE, James Phinney. The Educational Ideal: An 

Outline of its Growth in Modern Times. Heath 
& Co., Boston, 1896. 262 pages. 

14. Raumer, Karl von. Geschichte der Padagogik vom 

Wiederaufbliihen klassischer Studien bis auf unsere 
Zeit. 5 vols. Bertelsmann, Giitersloh, 1882-1897. 

15. Rein, Georg Wilhelm, editor: Encyklopadisches Hand- 

buch der Padagogik. 8 vols. Beyer, Langensalza, 
1895-1906. 

16. Scherer, Heinrich. Die Padagogik in ihrer Entwick- 

lung im Zusammenhange mit dem Kultur- und 
Geistesleben und ihrem Einfluss auf die Gestaltung 
des Erziehungs- und Bildungswesens. Vol. I. Die 
Padagogik vor Pestalozzi. Brandstetter, Leipz'ig, 
1897. 581 pages. 

17. ScHMiD, Karl Adolf, editor: Geschichte der Erziehung 

vom Anfang an bis auf unsere Zeit. 5 vols. Cotta, 
Stuttgart, 1884-1902. 

18. Spielmann, C. Christian. Die Meister der Padagogik 

nach ihren Leben, ihren Werken und ihrer Bedeu- 
tung. Heufer, Neuwied, 1904-1905. 365 pages. 

19. Ziegler, Theobald. Geschichte der Padagogik mit 

besonderer Riicksicht auf das hohere Unterrichts- 
wesen. Beck, Miinchen, 1895. 361 pages. 



CHAPTER II 

JOHN AMOS COMENIUS 

(1592-1670) 

The movement for the new Christian education, 
identified with the Reformation, the effort to estab- 
lish and spread the new realistic learning, repre- 
sented by Bacon, were struggling against the inertia 
of prejudice and tradition when Comenius came to 
the world to unify these two tendencies and lay the 
foundations of the modern Protestant school, nay, 
even to build its framework. Born in a devout 
Moravian family, studying under the most advanced 
scholars in the most progressive universities of the 
time, becoming the pastor and leader of his church 
by vocation, the teacher and director of several 
schools by avocation, his external circumstances, to- 
gether with his inborn disposition, made him '' the 
greatest pedagogical writer of the seventeenth cen- 
tury." In him the educational ideas and ideals of 
the age find the most comprehensive and systematic 
embodiment. 

Tlie great educational awakening of the sixteenth 
and seventeenth centuries was the demand for equal, 

18 



JOHN AMOS COMENIUS 19 

universal enlightenment as opposed to class educa- 
tion; for the upbuilding of Christian manhood; for 
citizenship instead of purely monastic and humanistic 
training; for the introduction of method and system 
into school instruction to remedy the prevailing 
chaotic condition; for a natural method in discipline 
as opposed to harmful artificiality; for making the 
vernacular instead of the ancient classics the basis 
and means of learning. These demands found ex- 
pression in the writings of such men as Luther and 
Bacon, and also Vives, Ratke, Rabelais, Campanella, 
Andrea, Alsted, etc. Comenius studied the writ- 
ings of these men with his judicious and compre- 
hensive mind and, aided by his direct experience, 
built upon this study that great system of pedagogy, 
which Professor Laurie of Edinburgh, speaks of as 
*' the only thoroughgoing treatise on educational 
method that has yet appeared in the history of the 
world'' (11: p. 153). 

However much he may owe to his predecessors 
and contemporaries, he it was who gave a coherency 
and a larger relation to what was partially expressed 
by others; who carried into details and practical 
applications what before was treated only in a gen- 
eral manner. 

To restore fallen humanity to the image of God 
was the first and last aim of education as conceived 
by him. Thus, education and religion were one for 
him, as they were to Luther. His philosophy of edu- 
cation is, in its fundamentals, really nothing else 



20 MODERN EDUCATORS 

than the most intelligent pedagogical application of 
the Bible. It may be called the pedagogy of Prot- 
estant Christianity. 

In the " Great Didactic,'* Comenius begins by pic- 
turing in biblical terminology the destined glory of 
man. He is God's likeness, God's delight. For his 
use God designed the heaven, the earth, and all that 
is in them ; to him alone God gave all those things in 
conjunction, which to the rest of creation He gave 
but singly— namely, Existence, Vitality, Sense, Rea- 
son. And to him, finally, God gave Himself in per- 
sonal communion, joining his nature to His, for 
eternity. '' Know therefore that thou art the cor- 
ner stone and epitome of my works, the representative 
of God among them, the crown of my glory " (2: 
p. 178). 

Human life is a gradual, successive, and eternal de- 
velopment. ' ' Whatever we are, do, think, speak, con- 
trive, acquire, or possess, contains a principle of 
gradation, and, though we mount perpetually and 
attain higher grades, we still continue to advance and 
never reach the highest" (2: p. 180). The earth, 
therefore, must not be the end of our life, the final 
goal for which we strive, but only the beginning, the 
■preparation, for an everlasting heaven where we find 
the fullness of all. The world is nothing but ** our 
nursery," '' our school," and " our workshop." Ac- 
cordingly, a purely secular education falls far short 
of its true function. AVe ought to prepare a child 
not only for this life, but for the life beyond. The 



JOHN AMOS COMENIUS 21 

inculcation of piety is thus the most important thing 
in education. 

The perfection of all the faculties we have in us, 
which is the ultimate goal of man, and in which lies 
his highest felicity, can be viewed from three aspects : 
the perfection of knowledge, of power, of heart, 
which " are so joined together that they cannot be 
separated/' Perfection of knowledge consists in 
being acquainted with the properties of all things in 
the world, including the knowledge of man himself. 
By the perfection of power is meant the ability to 
have control over all things and over himself. The 
man of power directs everything to its legitimate end, 
and subjects it to man's own use; he conducts him- 
self royally— that is, ' ' gravely and righteously among 
creatures." The perfection of heart is piety; it aims 
to embody the perfection of Christ, the archetype 
of man. 

Comenius believes that man's original nature is 
good. There is, in every man, a tendency toward 
every perfection— an infinite possibility or a possibil- 
ity of the infinite. However, man is born only with 
the potentiality, thus he has the possibility of degen- 
eration as well as of perfection. Hence the neces- 
sity of human striving, of education. '' The seeds of 
knowledge, of virtue, and of piety are naturally im- 
planted in us; but the actual knowledge, virtue, and 
piety are not given. These must be acquired by 
prayer, by education, and by action " (2: p. 204). 
Every individual has the possibility, the right, and 



22 MODERN EDUCATORS 

the duty to be a man, to realize his final destiny, as a 
rational creature, the lord of other creatures, the 
image of his creator; and ''it is only by a proper 
education that he can become a man ^' (2: p. 204). 
From this it naturally follows that education, in its 
essentials, should be universal and equal for all, with- 
out regard to the difference between rich and poor, 
boys and girls, noble and humble, dull and intelligent. 
Comenius shared, with most of the educational 
writers, ancient and modern, the view that education 
should begin as early as possible. He assigned six 
reasons for this : First, because we do not know when 
the child will be taken from his preparatory life on 
earth ; second, shortness of time compared with the 
infiniteness of learning and manifoldness of duty to be 
prepared; third, because " it is the nature of every- 
thing that comes into being, that while tender it is 
easily bent and formed, but that when it has grown 
hard, it is not easy to alter ' ^ ; fourth, God has granted 
man the years of youth, " unsuitable for everything 
but education,'* which are much longer than in ani- 
mals; fifth, the influence of early impressions is the 
most lasting and potent ; sixth, the mind of man seeks 
constantly for some activity, and, " if not engaged 
with what is useful, it occupies with the vainest and 
even with harmful things,'' of which the world is 
full. " If, then, each man have the welfare of his 
own children at heart, and if that of the human race 
be dear to the civil and ecclesiastical guardians of 
human affairs, let them hasten to make provision 



JOHN A]\I08 COMENIUS 23 

for timely planting, pruning, and watering of the 
plants of heaven, that these may be prudently formed 
to make j^rosperous advances in letters, virtue, and 
piety" (2: pp. 210-212). 

The necessity of equal, universal education of the 
young calls for the universal establishment of 
schools. In the home lies the foundation of educa- 
tion, and parents are naturally to be the first teach- 
ers, but modern society requires more in the way 
of education than the home can provide. The advan- 
tages of the school over the home can be enumerated 
as follows: 

1. " It is very seldom that parents have sufficient 
ability or sufficient leisure to teach their children," 
and " this is a marvelous saving of labor, when one 
man, undisturbed by other claims on his attention, 
confines himself to one thing; in this way one man 
can be of use to many and many to one " (2 : p. 215) . 

2. Group life affords many benefits and advan- 
tages of its own. " Better results and more pleas- 
ures are to be obtained when one pupil serves as 
an example and a stimulus for another " (2: p. 215). 
Emulation and imitation, which are strong instincts 
in children, can operate best when a certain equality 
of capacity and interest, and consequently easy mu- 
tual understanding, exist. In this sense children are 
the best instructors and trainers of children. 

3. To secure the best development of the child, a 
place, specified for the sole and definite end, with 
an ample provision and a regulated environment, is 
needed. As young plants are transplanted from their 
seed beds into the orchards or garden, so children 
should, after being cherished in the maternal bosom, 



24 MODERN EDUCATORS 

be delivered into the school, the soil specially pre- 
pared for them, in order to grow more vigorously 
and successfully." 

Thus the school, with its specially prepared teachers 
and accommodations, with its ample mental nourish- 
ment, its pleasant, healthy, and stimulating envi- 
ronment, its regular systematic work, and equip- 
ment especially adapted to its ends, should become 
the center for the advancement and propagation of 
knowledge and the fittest soil for the growth of the 
young generation. In Comenius's own words, " As 
workshops supply manufactured goods, churches sup- 
ply piety, and law courts justice, why should not 
schools produce, purify, and multiply the light of 
wisdom, and distribute it to the whole body of human 
community? " (2: p. 216). 

Comenius's demand upon and hope in the school 
was great. The school that fulfils its function per- 
fectly is ' ' one which is a true f orging-place of men ; 
where the minds of those who learn are illuminated by 
the light of wisdom, so as to penetrate with ease all 
that is manifest and all that is secret, where the emo- 
tions and desires are brought into harmony with vir- 
tue, and where the heart is filled and permeated by 
divine love, so that all who are handed over to Chris- 
tian schools to be imbued with true wisdom may be 
taught to live a heavenly life on earth ; in a word, 
where all men are taught all things thoroughly '' (2: 
p. 228). 

With this ideal, the reformer naturally found that 



JOHN AMOS COMENIUS 25 

'' hitherto there have been no perfect schools," and 
the present state of things is most unsatisfactory. 
" The method used in instructing the young has gen- 
erally been so severe that schools have been looked on 
as terrors for boys and shambles for their intellects, 
and the greater number of students, having contracted 
a dislike for learning and for books, have hastened 
away to the workshops of artificers or to some other 
occupation. . . . Piety and virtue, which form the 
most important element in education, were neglected 
more than anything else, ... so that for the most 
part, instead of tractable lambs, fiery wild asses and 
restive mules were produced; and instead of char- 
acters molded to virtue, nothing issued from the 
schools but a spurious veneer of morality, a fastidi- 
ous and exotic clothing of culture, and eyes, hands, 
and feet trained to worldly vanities" (2: pp. 
229-230). 

Even in intellectual culture, which had been almost 
their sole concern, the result achieved is pitifully 
poor. '^ For five, ten, or more years they detained 
the mind over matters that could be mastered in one. 
What could have been gently instilled into the in- 
tellect, was violently impressed upon it, nay rather 
stuffed and flogged into it. What might have been 
placed before the mind plainly and lucidly, was 
treated of obscurely, perplexedly, and intricately, as 
if it were a complicated riddle. In addition, . . . 
the intellect was scarcely ever nourished by the actual 

facts, but was filled with the husks of words, with a 
3 



26 MODERN EDUCATORS 

windy and parrot-like loquacity, and with the chaff 
of opinions" (2: pp. 230-231). 

Consequently, Comenius proposed a thoroughgoing 
reform of tlie schools, to base them upon the Chris- 
tian principle, and to introduce a change in subject- 
matter, discipline, and method of instruction. " All 
those subjects which are able to make a man wise, 
virtuous and pious " were to be taught; not Latin, 
as had been customary, but vernacular language 
should be the chief instrument of learning. " This 
education shall be conducted without blows, rigour, or 
compulsion, . . . and in the most natural manner " 
(2 : p. 233) . The student ' ' shall not merely read the 
opinions of others and grasp their meaning or com- 
mit them to memory and repeat them, but shall him- 
self penetrate to the root of things and acquire the 
habit of genuinely understanding and making use 
of what he learns '^ (2: p. 234). As to method, the 
most easy, natural, economical, and efficient way of 
learning must be investigated and established. 

Method is the great thing in the pedagogy of 
Comenius. To find out the universal rules which can 
be applied to all pupils in all cases was his chief task, 
and herein lies the main contribution he made to the 
subsequent progress of educational art. He says: 

*' The art of teaching, tharefore, demands nothing 
more than the skilful arrangement of time, of the 
subjects taught, and of the method. As soon as we 
have succeeded in finding the proper method it will 
be no harder to teach school-boys, in any number de- 



JOHN AMOS COMENIUS 27 

sired, than with the help of the printing-press to 
cover a thousand sheets daily with the neatest writ- 
ing, or with Archimedes 's machine to move houses, 
towers, and immense weights, or to cross the ocean 
in a shii3, and journey to the New World. The whole 
process, too, will be as free from friction as is the 
movement of a clock whose motive power is supplied 
by the weights. It will be as pleasant to see education 
carried out on my plan as to look at an automatic 
machine of this kind, and the process will be as free 
from failure as are these mechanical contrivances 
when skilfully made " (2: pp. 248-249). 

The form of argumentation by which Comenius en- 
deavors to establish his methodology is quite mediaeval 
and often ludicrous. It rests largely on the exag- 
gerated, sometimes misapplied analogies from Nature 
and mechanics, and evidences from the Bible. But it 
also contains many pedagogical truths embodied in 
the schoolrooms of our day. To epitomize the gen- 
eral principles of his methodology, the process of 
teaching should begin with the most plastic mind of 
early childhood in slow progressive order, proceed- 
ing always from the general to the specific, from 
what is easy to what is more difficult, following the 
natural interests of the child, paying a due consid- 
eration to his age, mental capacity, and development : 
everything being taught first through the medium of 
the senses, a special emphasis being laid upon logical 
sequence and ideational correlation between the dif- 
ferent subjects and different parts of the same sub- 
ject ; only those subjects that are of real use should be 



28 MODERN EDUCATORS 

taken in hand, everything of little importance being 
invariably discarded, and the purpose and use of 
everything taught should be constantly kept in view. 
He advocates that everything should be taught ac- 
cording to one and the same method ; there should be 
only one teacher in each school, or at any rate in 
each class; that only one author should be used for 
each subject studied, and the same exercise should be 
given the v^^hole class. 

The method of teaching arts, sciences, languages, 
morals, and instilling piety is each and severally dis- 
cussed. But a large part of Comenius's time and en- 
ergy was devoted to the reform of language teaching 
and to the writing of text-books for it. And by this 
work alone he was known in Europe during nearly two 
hundred years of practical oblivion after his death. 

With his methodization of the process of instruc- 
tion necessarily went the systematizing of school 
organization. The entire educational system is 
graded by him as follows : I. The home as a prepara- 
tory school for infancy. II. The vernacular school 
for childhood. III. The Latin school or gymnasium 
for boyhood. IV. The university and travel for 
youth. He considers the first twenty-four years of 
human life as the period of growth and plasticity, and 
recognizes in it four distinct stages, each of which 
contains six years. In his idea of a mother-school he 
anticipates Froebel's kindergarten, and in his sketch 
of the vernacular and Latin school we see the arche- 
type of the modern graded school. 



JOHN AMOS COMENIUS 29 

As a summary of his whole pedagogy nothing bet- 
ter can be offered than the title page of his work, 
which so well reflects the characteristics of his book 
and that of the age: 

The Grreat Didactic 

Setting forth 

The Whole Art of Teaching 
All Things to all Men 

or 

A Certain Inducement to found such Schools in all 

the Parishes, Towns, and Villages of every 

Christian Kingdom, that the entire 

Youth of both Sexes, none 

being excepted, shall 

Quickly^ Pleasantly^ & Thoroughly 

Become learned in the Sciences, pure in Morals, 

trained to Piety, and in this manner 

instructed in all things necessary 

for the present and for 

the future life, 

in which, with respect to everything that is suggested, 

Its Fundamental Principles are set forth from the 

essential nature of matter, 
Its Truth is proved by examples from the several 

mechanical arts. 
Its Order is clearly set forth in years, months, days, 

and hours, and finally, 

An easy and sure ]\Iethod is shown by which it can 

be pleasantly brought into existence. 



30 MODERN EDUCATORS 

Comenius has not lacked his admirers in every 
land. To-day he must especially appeal to the edu- 
cational thinkers and administrators of the orthodox 
type of mind. But this great architectonic genius 
and scholarly reformer has naturally won the best 
recognition in Germany. Spielmann even goes so 
far in his admiration as to say: 

'' If all the pedagogical writings of all ages had 
been lost and the great didactic alone remained it 
would have sufficed as a basis for the later generation 
to build the science of education anew " (25: p. 28). 

He might indeed be blamed for putting too much 
confidence in the power of school education, and lay- 
ing too much emphasis on method and system with 
too little on the personal force of the educator. Yet 
he deserves our remembrance as one who has left 
us the most comprehensive system of pedagogy, in 
which one of the greatest civilizing agents, nay, prob- 
ably even the greatest, in modern communities— the 
universal public school— is foreshadowed in its funda- 
mentals and in its details. If Bacon, as the greatest 
apostle of the new learning, proclaimed the gospel of 
knowledge, Comenius, as the greatest apostle of the 
new education, proclaimed the gospel of the school. 
And as the former rescued knowledge from fossil- 
ization by uniting her with her true spouse, the real- 
ity of nature and life, so the latter vitalized the school 
by giving it its glorious function, the forging shop, 
the nursery garden of the human race. Through 



JOHN AMOS COMENIUS 31 

it not only do individuals become able to attain their 
destiny as individuals, but the solidity and prosper- 
ity of social institutions rest upon it. 

The Reformation ideal finds its culmination in the 
educational scheme of Comenius. Erudition, which 
was formerly only the privilege of scholars; moral- 
ity, which used to be required only from the so-called 
guardian or citizen class ; piety, which was left to the 
priesthood— were now all made the common ideals for 
every individual, to be striven for without regard to 
sex, occupation, or rank. 

REFERENCES 

1. Adamson, John William. Pioneers of Modern Educa- 

tion, 1600-1700. University Press, Cambridge, 
1905. 285 pages. 

2. Comenius, John Amos. The Great Didactic. Trans- 

lated, with introduction, biographical and historical, 
by M. W. Keatinge. Black, London, 1896. 468 
pages. 

3. School of Infancy; an Essay on the Education of 

Youth during the First Six Years. Edited, with an 
introduction and notes, by W. S. Monroe. Heath 
& Co., Boston, 1896. 99 pages. 

4. Compayre, Jules Gabriel. History of Pedagogy. 

Translated, with an introduction, notes, and index, 
by W. H. Payne. Heath & Co., Boston, 1899. 589 
pages. 

5. Hahner, H. Natur und Naturmassigkeit bei Comenius 

und Pestalozzi. Lamprecht, Chemnitz, 1890. 87 
pages. 

6. Heman, Friedrich. Geschichte der neueren Padagogik. 

Zickfeldt, Osterwieck, 1904. 436 pages. 



32 MODERN EDUCATORS 

7. Heubaum, Alfred. Gcschichte des deutscheh Bildungs- 

wesens seit der Mitte des siebzehnten Jahrhunderts. 
Vol. I. Bis zum Beginn der allgemeinen Unter- 
richtsreform unter Friedrich dem Grossen. Weid- 
mann, Berlin, 1905. 402 pages. 

8. HoFFMEiSTER, HERMANN WiLHELM. Comenius und 

Pestalozzi als Begriinder der Volkschiile. Second 
revised edition. Klinkhardt, Leipzig, 1896. 97 
pages. 

9. Kerrl, Th. Johann Amos Comenius. Sein Leben, seine 

padagogischen Schriften und seine Bedeutung. 4 
vols. Schroebel, Halle a. Saale, 1904-1905. 389 
pages. 

10. Laurie, Simon Somerville. John Amos Comenius. 

Small, Boston, 1885. 229 pages. 

11. Studies in the History of Educational Opinions 

from the Renaissance. University Press, Cambridge, 
1903. 261 pages. 

12. Melchers, Karl. Comenius und Pestalozzi; eine 

vergleichende Betrachtung ihrer Grundideen. 
Schmidt, Bremen, 1896. 47 pages. 

13. Mohrke, Max August Heinrich. Johann Amos Co- 

menius und Johann Valentin Andrea. Glausch, 
Leipzig, 1904. 168 pages. 

14. Monathefte der Comenius-gesellschaft. Comenius-gesell- 

schaft. Charlottenburg, Berlin, 1892-1908. 

15. Monroe, Paul. A Text-book in the History of Educa- 

tion. Macmillan & Co., London and New York, 
1905. 772 pagesv 

16. Monroe, William Seymour. Comenius and the Begin- 

ning of Educational Reform. Scribner, New York, 
1900. 184 pages. 



JOHN AMOS COMENIUS 33 

17. MuLLER, Walter. Comenius, ein Systematiker in der 

Padagogik. Bleyl & Kammer, Dresden, 1887. 50 
pages. 

18. MuNROE, James Phinney. The Educational Ideal: an 

Outline of Its Growth in Modern Times. Heath & 
Co., Boston, 1896. 262 pages. 

19. Pappenheim, Eug. Amos Comenius, der Begriinder der 

neueren Padagogik. Ackermann, Miinchen, 1871. 
66 pages. 

20. Quick, Robert HeberTo Essays on Educational Re- 

formers. Appleton, New York, 1890. 560 pages. 
The same. (International Education Series), 1903. 
568 pages. 

21. Raumer, Karl von. Geschichte der Padagogik vom 

Wiederaufbliihen klassischer Studien bis auf unsere 
Zeit. 5 vols. Bertelsmann, Giitersloh, 1882-1897. 
Vols. I and III. 

22. Rein, Georg Wilhelm. Encyklopadisches Handbuch 

der Padagogik. 8 vols. Beyer, Langensalza, 1895- 
1906. Vol. I. 

23. ScHERER, Heinrich. Die Padagogik in ihrer Entwick- 

lung im Zusammenhange mit dem Kultur- und 
Geistesleben und ihrem Einfluss auf die Gestaltung 
des Erziehungs- und Bildungswesens. Vol. I. Die 
Padagogik vor Pestalozzi. Brandstetter, Leipzig, 
1897. 581 pages. 

24. ScHMiD, Karl Adolf, editor. Geschichte der Erziehung 

vom Anfang an bis auf unsere Zeit. 5 vols. Cotta, 
Stuttgart, 1884-1903. Vol. III. 

25. Spielmann, C. Christian. Die Meister der Padagogik 

nach ihren Leben, ihren Werken, und ihrer Bedeu- 
tung. Heufer, Neuwied, 1904-1905. 361 pages. 
Part II. 



34 MODERN EDUCATORS 

26. WiTTE, J. Johann Amos Comenius in seiner kultur- 

geschichtlichen Stellung unci seiner historischen 
Bedeutung flir die Entwicklung des Schulwesens, 
im Besonderen, der Volkschiile. Andreae, Ruhrort, 
1892. 51 pages. 

27. ZiEGLER, Theobald. Geschichte der Padagogik mit 

besonderer Riicksicht auf das holiere Unterrichts- 
wesen. Beck, Miinchen, 1895. 361 pages. 



r 



i 



CHAPTER III 

JOHN LOCKE 

(1632-1704) 

When the second greatest educational work in the 
seventeenth century appeared in 1693, the world was 
only a generation and a half older than when it saw 
the *' Great Didactic." While we find in Comenius 
a strange mixture of mediaeval and modern thinking, 
Locke's '' Some Thoughts concerning Education " 
reflects entirely modern conceptions and tendencies. 
But the differences between the two works are not 
wholly due to the difference of the times; they are 
due more to that of the men themselves and their 
nationalities. 

Thougli born a Slav, Comenius represents, in his 
personality and pedagogy, the idealistic and theoriz- 
ing genius of the German nation. Locke, on the con- 
trary, is a typical Englishman, and perfectly em- 
bodies the practical genius of that people. Compare 
the titles of the two books referred to above. How 
elaborate and ornate is the one and how homely the 
other! One might compare the former to a great 
piece of architecture, built up stone by stone with 

35 



36 MODERN EDUCATORS 

exactness of sequence and plan. Every detail is 
manifestly studied and follows a scheme previously 
laid out. The latter, on the contrary, is like a paint- 
ing, or a work of artisanship, if you please. There 
is the design, unity and harmony, but these lie in 
the artist's experience or mental make-up, and de- 
velop themselves as he moves his hand. Comenius's 
pedagogy starts with the highest ideal of humanity, 
and then proceeds to consider how each and all can 
be made to conform to it. His plans and practical 
recommendations are also, in general, more of deduc- 
tions from his basal hypothesis or philosophy than 
inductions from the considerations of the actual con- 
ditions and problems. With Locke the procedure is 
very different: a particular boy concerning whose 
education he was consulted is the starting point. 
This boy has to grow up in a particular age, environ- 
ment, and social class, and must be fitted to all these 
actual conditions. Not the ultimate end of the race, 
but the particular destiny of a real boy, his mental- 
ity, the best educative forces conducing to the possi- 
bly perfect fulfillment of his destiny, are to be the 
chief considerations. Comenius was a practical as 
well as theoretical reformer in education, but he was, 
above all, a scholarly priest, probably the best type 
that his age could produce. Locke was a great origi- 
nal thinker, the father of English, psychology. But 
he was, essentially, and in its highest sense, a man of 
the world. In spite of his physical weakness, which 
hindered him from an active participation in the 



JOHN LOCKE 37 

social and political affairs of his country, he was 
always concerned and identified with them. Thus 
the Christian citizenship at which he aimed was not 
a gazing from the stepladder of this earthly life 
toward the distant vision of heavenly perfection, but 
a vigorous, efficient, working and living with others 
as a child of this world. There is no bold brilliancy 
in his educational thoughts, but they are full of living 
truths which come only from the actual broad expe- 
rience of life, and so can be applied to real life. 
There is in them no soaring transcendentalism. Yet 
if we intelligently follow his leadership, we shall find 
that it does not lack a glow of idealism which can 
illumine our earthly path. It is a sound philosophy 
of a sound personality who has seen the wide living 
world with his own eyes, and expressed his views 
with the scrupulous conscientiousness and the sin- 
cerity of conviction— a perfect product of great com- 
mon sense. Leibniz, the great German philosopher, 
who recognized Locke's Essay on '' Human Under- 
standing," as '' one of the most beautiful and most 
esteemed works " of his time, was disposed to rate 
his " Thoughts on Education " still higher. Even to- 
day, after we have become familiar with a host of 
great and modern thinkers, he finds such an admirer 
as Professor Laurie, of Edinburgh, who thinks " that 
no educational writer surpasses him." Rousseau's 
indebtedness to him is a well-known fact, and through 
Kousseau his influence extends to the whole conti- 
nental development of educational thought down to 



38 MODERN EDUCATORS 

the present day. As to the wide and deep effect 
which his thought directly exerted upon England 
there can be no question. Oscar Browning, of Cam- 
bridge, believes that Locke's ideas " determine the 
character of our most characteristic educational in- 
stitution, the English public school" (2: p. 118). 
And yet Locke had little interest in the public school 
of his day. England produced in him her ideal type 
of a gentleman, and he, as the incarnation of her ge- 
nius, has formed the gentlemen of England. 

Thus, the two greatest educational writers of the 
seventeenth century, standing at the fountainhead 
of the pedagogical stream of the modern era, present 
a very interesting contrast, which is not insignificant 
in its effects. If one is the harbinger of the idealistic 
and tlie theorizing pedagogy of the German type, the 
other is the champion of the realistic and empirical 
school of the English type. A religious tendency 
predominates in the former, a secular tendency in the 
latter. If Comenius may be called the pedagogue of 
public education, Locke is to be called that of private 
education. In the former, the emphasis is on the 
order, system, and method; in the latter, the stress 
is laid on the personal influence of the educator. 
While in the former, instruction is the main thing ; in 
the latter, discipline and training are essential. 

If we are justified in tliinking that the intellectual 
side of the Renaissance attained its true destiny in 
the Baconian conception of science and its principles, 
so we miglit say with equal validity tliat the prac- 



JOHN LOCKE 39 

tical genius of the ancient Greeks and Romans blos- 
somed again in Locke in the new soil of Christian 
consciousness. In spite of his sharing with Bacon 
a strong intolerance of the prevailing humanistic, 
classical education, it is evident that he imbibed 
deeply the spirit of ancient culture. He once ad- 
mitted that '' amongst the Grecians is to be found 
the original, as it were, and foundation of all that 
learning which we have in this part of the world," 
and " no man," he held, " can pass for a scholar that 
is ignorant of the Greek tongue " (7 : p. 170). Thus, 
Sparta's example of building up a vigorous physique 
and character in her youth through hard discipline, 
of inculcating wisdom through free conversation 
w^ith older people, Pythagoras 's teaching of the har- 
mony of body and soul, Socrates 's fidelity to truth 
and unbiased attitude of mind, Plato's exaltation of 
virtue above all things, Aristotle 's ideal of a perfectly 
balanced life, regulated by reason, the Roman fidel- 
ity, patriotism, and statesmanship,— these together 
with the true spirit of Christianity flowed into his 
life and into his philosophy of education. Locke 
had, like every other reformer, his predecessors, such 
as Rabelais and Montaigne. But what was in them, 
mainly mockery and ridicule of the current education, 
became in Locke more positive and more comprehen- 
sive assertion. His philosophy of education was 
grounded on his new empirical psychology, which 
was, after Bacon, the next great stimulus to the 
intellectual activity of the world. 



40 MODERN EDUCATORS 

With the Montaignean dictum : " A sound mind in 
a sound body," Locke begins his Thoughts on Edu- 
cation. This is, he says, '' a short but full descrip- 
tion of a happy state in this world— lie that has 
these two, has little more to wish for; and he that 
wants either of them, will be but little the better for 
anything else" (7: p. 1). For Locke, the art of 
education was synonymous with the art of hygiene 
in its broadest sense — i. e., the formation and the 
maintenance of a healthful life, mental and moral 
as well as physical. How can we form such a health- 
ful life ? His answer is simple : By accustoming our- 
selves to a healthy mode of living. Habituation is 
the keynote of his whole pedagogy. 

Although the human body was conceived "by him 
still as ' ' the clay cottage ' ' of the mind, yet he wanted 
us to understand '' how necessary Health is to our 
business and happiness, and how requisite a strong 
constitution, able to endure hardship and fatigue " 
(7: p. 2). So he began his treatise with the physi- 
cal care of the child. A simple, rigorous life was his 
ideal, and so he prescribed the following rules for 
children : Plenty of open air, of exercise, and of 
sleep ; plain diet, no wine or strong drink, and very 
little or no drugs; not too warm or straight cloth- 
ing ; the head and feet especially to be kept cold, and 
the feet to be accustomed by exposure to wetness. 
Locke studied medicine, and once practiced it with 
much success. And the hygienic rules above cited, 
which were the result of his own experience and ex- 



JOHN LOCKE 41 

perimentation, introduced almost a revolution in 
the physical bringing up of children. We see how 
subsequent writers, like Rousseau and Kant, reflect 
his thoughts. 

His ideas of mental training rest on his theory of 
the mind. According to him, the mind of a new- 
born child is a tabula rasa: there is nothing innate 
in it; experience is what makes a mind. Every sen- 
sation one receives or every act one does, however 
small and insignificant it may seem, leaves some im- 
13ression upon it, and contributes not only to the con- 
stitution of its content, but also to the formation of 
a definite tendency. He recognized the important 
role played by the unconscious or automatic part of 
the mind in our actual life, which is nothing more 
than an aggregate or a system of various habits. 
Volition has but little power against it; it works 
more " constantly and with greater facility than rea- 
son, which, when we have most need of it, is seldom 
fairly consulted and more rarely obeyed ^' (7: p. 91). 
Habit formation is, therefore, the great thing in edu- 
cation. The significance of any act of a child, of any 
educational process, is to be measured only by what 
kind of habit it is likely to lead to. 

Although he compared children's minds to water 
which we can easily turn this way or that, or to wax 
upon which we can impress any figure as we like, yet 
he meant to illustrate by this simply the extreme 
plasticity and flexibility of childhood. He was not 
blind to the great individual differences, and was 



42 MODERN EDUCATORS 

perfectly aware that " there are possibly scarce two 
children who can be conducted by exactly the same 
method" (7: p. 187). Moreover, he says: ''We 
must not hope wholly to change their original tem- 
pers, nor make the gay pensive and grave, nor the 
melancholy sportive, without spoiling them ; God has 
stamped certain characters upon men's minds which, 
like their shapes, may perhaps be a little mended, 
but can hardly be totally altered and transformed 
into the contrary '^ (7: p. 40). The uniformatiza- 
tion of method, then, is a crime of educational art 
instead of its aim. The only common rule to be 
fixed is not to have any definite rule, but to find out 
about every child, what his temperament, inclinations, 
defects are, and apply methods or treatment that are 
" adapted to his capacity " and " suited to his natu- 
ral genius and constitution." 

In discussing the process of discipline, he first 
makes a plea for the free expression of the play in- 
stinct. " This gamesome humour," he says, " which 
is wisely adapted by Nature to their age and temper 
should rather be encourag'd to keep up their spirits, 
and improve strength and health, than curb'd or 
restrained " (7: p. 38). A '' misapply'd and use- 
less correction " in this case may serve '' only to 
spoil the temper both of body and of mind." Our 
hope of education will be gone if we kill this tend- 
ency to spontaneous activity at its growth. For here 
is just the point of grasp by which alone we can 
lead children anywhere we desire. The chief art of 



JOHN LOCKE 43 

the educator is to make all that they have to do 
sport and play, too " (7: p. 38). 

Shall we then put no restraint whatever upon 
their conduct? No, far from that. Locke insists 
that even '' tlie plays and diversions of children 
should be directed towards good and useful habits 
or else they will introduce ill ones " (7:p. 113). He 
demands a stern and rigorous discipline, and accuses 
parents of weakening their little ones by too much 
fondling. Children ought not to be allowed to satisfy 
a craving which comes from their whims and fancies 
and not from their natural wants. They ought to 
learn the control of their passions and appetites from 
their cradles, and so be kept in absolute subjection 
to the parents' authority while their own reason is 
not yet developed. Their instinctive sense of awe 
should be utilized and obedience be made implicit and 
natural. But as they grow up, more liberty should 
be allowed, and friendliness, love, and even respect 
should take the place of authority. 

Nevertheless, Locke does not believe in severe pun- 
ishment. ' ' The usual lazy and short way by chastise- 
ment and rod," he thinks, encourages " our natural 
propensity to indulge in corporeal and present pleas- 
ure and to avoid pain at any cost," instead of con- 
ducing to its mastery, and ' ' thereby strengthens that 
in us which is the root from whence spring all vicious 
actions, and the irregularities of life" (7: p. 30). 
Again, '^ such a sort of slavish Discipline makes a 
slavish Temper " (7:p. 31). It creates a hypocrite 



44 MODERN EDUCATORS 

who dissembles obedience, yet with his natural inclina- 
tion only heightened and increased on account of ex- 
ternal suppression. It creates ' ' a low-spirited, moped 
creature, who, however, with his unnatural sobriety 
may please silly j)eople, who commend tame inactive 
children, because they make no noise, nor give them 
any trouble; yet, at last, will probably prove as un- 
comfortable a thing to his friends, as he will be all his 
life as useless a thing to himself and others " (7: p. 
31). It severs a child from the parent or the teacher 
who administers it, and causes disgust for work when 
applied for its enforcement. But in case of lying and 
obstinacy, which he considered as the two grave moral 
faults issuing from the conscious volition of the child, 
Locke allows and even advises us to resort to severe 
measures, in order to check them at their first mani- 
festation. Here the rod should be heavy and un- 
swerving, and not laid down until it has brought the 
child's will into a complete subjugation. But he 
thinks that if we keep our strict hand constantly 
over the unnatural desires of the child, from its 
cradle, and at the same time give a full freedom to 
its natural wants and activities, we shall seldom find 
an occasion which calls for the rod. 

Material rewards are equally condemned by Locke 
as the physical punishment. He admits, however, 
that pain and pleasure, reward and punishment, are 
'' the only motives to a rational creature,'^ '' the 
spur and reins whereby all mankind are set to work 
and guided.'* *' Remove hope and fear, and there 



JOHN LOCKE 45 

is an end of all discipline " (7: p. 33). What he 
wished, was to accustom children to connect their 
hope and fear, pain and pleasure, with proper ob- 
jects, in such a way as not to form those habits which 
are detrimental to their future happiness and virtue. 
There is a force or motive power in human life 
equally strong or even stronger than material, physi- 
cal pain and pleasure. It is the sense of honor, the 
desire for esteem and the hate of disgrace. This shall 
be used as the lever to move the young. " Make his 
mind as sensible of credit and shame as may be ; and 
when you have done that, you have put a principle 
into him which will influence his actions when you 
are not by; to which the fear of a little smart of a 
rod is not comparable ; and which will be the proper 
stock whereon afterwards to graft the true principles 
of morality and religion '' (7: p. 177). If you suc- 
ceed in this, ' ^ by all arts imaginable, " ' ' the business 
is done and the difficulty is over " (7 : p. 34). 

Locke does not believe in '* charging children's 
memories upon all occasions with Rules and pre- 
cepts, which they often do not understand, and 
constantly so soon forget as given " (7: p. 38). 
]\Iere admonition or verbal instruction cannot teach 
what long experience and broad generalization alone 
taught the race. Even commanding is more effective 
than teaching. But the lesson by example, learning 
by imitation, is the method he recommends. " The 
tincture of company sinks deeper than the outside; 
and possibly, if a true estimate were made of the 



46 MODERN EDUCATORS 

morality and religions of the world, we should find 
that the far greater part of mankind received even 
those opinions and ceremonies they would die for, 
rather from the fashions of their countries, and the 
constant practice of those about them than from any 
conviction of their reasons '^ (7: p. 128). If this is 
true of those in whom reason is already developed, 
still more so with children. So, the self -discipline 
of parents themselves, the most careful choice of 
tutor, friends, nurse, governess, and servants, are 
spoken of by Locke as a matter of the first impor- 
tance. Nobody has felt the great significance of 
environment in education deeper than Locke. He 
says: 

" Having named Company, I am almost ready to 
throw away my pen and trouble you no further on 
this subject: For, since that does more than all pre- 
cepts, rules, and instructions, methinks it is almost 
wholly in vain to make a long discourse of other 
things, and to talk of that almost to no purpose " 
(7:p. 45). 

The main aim of education for Locke is character 
building, since he conceived virtue as " the first and 
most necessary of those endowments that belong to a 
man or a gentleman. '^ Next to virtue, wisdom is the 
most necessary quality for a man. Wisdom means 
" a man's managing his business ably and with fore- 
sight in tliis woi'ld." And since '' this is the product 
of a good natural temper, application of mind, and 
experience together/' we cannot teach it to children. 



JOHN LOCKE 47 

' ' To accustom a child to have true notions of things, 
and not to be satisfied till he has them; to raise his 
mind to great and worthy thoughts, and to keep him 
at a distance from falsehood and cunning, which has 
always a broad mixture of falsehood in it, is the 
fittest preparation of a child for wisdom" (7: pp. 
119-120). The rest is ''to be learned from time, 
experience and observation, and an acquaintance with 
men. ' ' Let him inform his mind by engaging in con- 
versation with ' ' men of parts and breeding, ' ' as soon 
as he is capable of benefitting by it, and send him to 
travel when he reaches mature adolescence. 

The third important quality is good breeding. 
'' The happiness that all men so steadily pursue 
consisting in pleasure — he that knows how to make 
those he converses with easy, without debasing him- 
self to low and servile flattery, has found the true 
art of living in the world, and being both welcomed 
and valued everywhere" (7: p. 124). The aim 
of good breeding is to avoid a sheepish bashful- 
ness on the one hand, and a misbecoming negligence 
and disrespect on the other; to cultivate a modest 
but assured, courteous yet not mean attitude of mind 
and outward demeanor accompanying it, this is " a 
great skill which good sense, reason, and good com- 
pany can only reach." Here, again, rules and ex- 
hortation avail little, unless good examples are 
shown. ''Be as busy as you like with discourses of 
Civility to your son, such as is his company, such will 
be his manners " (7: p. 125). But young children 



48 MODERN EDUCATORS 

should not be too much interfered with as to the 
outward manners; carelessness and clumsiness are 
natural to them, and age will cure them, if you 
only ' ' teach them humility and to be good-natured, ' ' 
and always choose for them good company. Dancing 
should be taught as soon as they are capable of learn- 
ing it, for ' ' nothing appears to me to give children so 
much becoming confidence and behavior, and so to 
raise them to the conversation of those above their 
age, as Dancing '' (7:p. 42). To give a '' freedom 
and ease to all the motions of the body " is the main 
thing in dancing. ' ' One that teaches not this is worse 
than none at all: natural unfashionableness being 
much better than apish affected postures ; and I think 
it much more passable to put off the hat and make a 
leg like an honest country gentleman than like an 
ill-fashioned dancing master. For as for the jigging 
part and the figures of dances, I count that little or 
nothing further than as it tends to perfect graceful 
carriage " (7: p. 174). 

Learning is the last and least concern in Locke's 
philosophy of education. It is, he recognizes, a great 
help both to virtue and wisdom in all well-disposed 
minds ; but ' ' in others not so disposed, it helps them 
only to be the most foolish or worse men." When 
Locke saw " what ado is made about a little Latin 
and Greek, how many years are spent in it, and what 
a noise and business it makes to no purpose," he 
could not but despise it, and say: " A great part 
of learning now in fashion in the schools of Europe, 






JOHN LOCKE 49 

and that goes ordinarily into the round of education, 
a gentleman may in a good measure be unfurnished 
with, without any disparagement to himself or prej- 
udice to his affairs " (7: p. 74). '^ Learning,'''' he 
declares, " must be had, but in the second place, as 
subservient to greater qualities. . . . Place him (your 
child) in hands where you may, as much as possible, 
secure his innocence, cherish and nurse up the good, 
and gently correct and weed out any bad inclinations, 
and settle in him good habits. This is the main point, 
and this being provided for, learning may be had into 
the bargain " (7: pp. 128-129). 

In learning, too, acquirement of habits is the chief 
educational process. Not so much to suppl}^ ready- 
made knowledge nor to impart the teacher's own 
ideas, as to implant, by practice, a proper habit of 
reading, thinking, observing, and doing is the goal 
to be striven for. The educator must see to the con- 
stant and correct exercise of the powers to be devel- 
oped. But premature use or overexercise is as detri- 
mental to the vigorous development of the mind as 
neglect or too little exercise. "The mind, by being 
engaged in a task beyond its strength, like the body 
strained by lifting at a weight too heavy, has often its 
force broken, and thereby gets an unaptness or an 
aversion to any vigorous attempt ever after " (8: 
pp. 87-88). Children's natural weakness' of mind 
should be understood and not taken for their willful 
fault. Healthful activity of mind is the thing to be 
secured, and for this the following principles are laid 



50 MODERN EDUCATORS 

down by Locke, which we may regard as the laws of 
hygiene of attention and association: 

1. Keep up the natural tendency of children to 
free, spontaneous activity; if they lack this, awaken 
it. Introduce them to something, anything, which 
they can do with pleasure and enthusiasm. " None 
of the things they are to learn should ever be made a 
burden, or imposed upon them as a Task. Whatever 
is so proposed, presently becomes irksome " (7 : p. 52) , 
and they will form an habitual prejudice against it. 
This manifestation of spontaneous activity has its 
ebb and flow; so catch the proper moment as well 
as the proper subject for setting them to work. 

2. Cherish the curiosity or natural inquisitive- 
ness of children and give it encouragement. However 
foolish and trifling their questions may appear to you, 
do not forget that for them these questions are mat- 
ters of great moment. Treat them as ' ' a stranger in 
an unknown land," and thus lead them to useful 
knowledge that they should know. Knowledge grows 
by constant quest, and thus only. 

3. The wandering mind and the fleeting thought 
are the result of the natural constitution of childhood. 
It is the law of mental economy, especially dominant 
in children, that " their thoughts should be perpet- 
ually shifting from wliat disgusts tliem, and seek bet- 
ter entertainment in more pleasing objects " (7: p. 
143). A frequent change of subject, introduction of 
some new, strange objects, making instruction inter- 



JOHN LOCKE 51 

esting, and thus holding the involuntary attention, 
are therefore necessary in teaching children. 

4. Children's minds are strongly susceptible to 
emotional disturbances. '' Passionate words or blows 
from the tutor fill the child's mind with terror and 
affrightment, which immediately takes it wholly up, 
and leaves no room for other impressions " (7: p. 
143). Therefore, " keep the mind in an easy, calm 
temper, when you would have it receive 3'our in- 
structions or any increase of knowledge. It is as 
impossible to draw fair and regular characters on a 
trembling mind as on a shaking paper " (7: p. 143). 

5. However great the part which involuntary at- 
tention plaj^s in the process of learning, the culti- 
vation of the power of voluntary attention should 
not be neglected. Children should be habituated to 
the voluntary direction or control of attention " by 
trying them sometimes, when they are by laziness 
unbent, or by avocation bent another way, and en- 
deavoring to make them buckle to the thing pro- 
posed '' (7 : p. 54). Some bodily labor which requires 
a constant vigilance and application of mind is recom- 
mended as a remedy for a diffused attention. The 
work interest stands to the voluntary attention in the 
same relation as the play interest to the involuntary 
attention. So, the former should be stimulated by 
letting the child see ^ ' by what he has learned, that he 
can do something which he could not do before ; some- 
thing, which gives him some power and real advan- 
tage above others who are ignorant of it " (7 : p. 144) . 



52 MODERN EDUCATORS 

6. We find in our mind often an association of 
ideas which is accidental and arbitrary in its origin, 
but once being established is almost inseparable and 
imperative. This wrong association '' has such an 
influence, and is of so great force to set us awry in 
our action, as well moral as natural, passions, reason- 
ings, and notions themselves, that perhaps there is 
not any one thing that deserves more to be looked 
after " (9 : vol. ii. Book II, chapter 33, § 9). To pre- 
vent such erroneous associations in the mind of chil- 
dren, the strict order of learning should be observed, 
'' Give them first one simple idea, and see that they 
take it right, and perfectly comprehend it, before 
you go any further; and then add some other simple 
idea which lies next in your way to what you aim at ; 
and so proceeding by gentle and insensible steps, chil- 
dren without confusion and amazement will have their 
understandings opened and their thoughts extended 
farther than could have been expected " (7: p. 158). 

Mathematics is recommended as a help to the train- 
ing of reasoning power, for a mathematical demon- 
stration represents the coherent process of reason- 
ing. As for logic, he thinks with Bacon that it, 
' ' catching at what it cannot reach, has served to con- 
firm and establish errors, rather than to open a way 
to truth " (8: p. 19). 

No general improvement of memory is affected by 
any usual method of " committing to memory," or 
'' learning by heart." For in his psychology (9: vol. 



JOHN LOCKE 53 

ii, Book II, chapter xxxiii, xxxix; vol. i, Book II, 
chapter x) our memory of ideas or impressions de- 
pends upon the strength of power to hold them in 
mind— namely, attention, on the one hand, and upon 
that of the power to retain and recall them, on the 
other. Yet the intensity and duration of attention 
is largely determined by interest, and the retentive 
power is owing to our constitution, and therefore be- 
yond education. Thus he says: " What the mind is 
intent upon and careful of, that it remembers best, 
... to which if method and order be joined, all is 
done, I think, that can be for the help of a weak mem- 
ory ; and he that will take any other way to do it, espe- 
cially that of charging it w^th a train of other peo- 
ple's words, which he that learns cares not for, will, I 
guess, scarce find the profit answer half the time and 
pains employed in it.'' For memory is not a power 
that is transferable from one thing to another. ' ' The 
learning pages of Latin by heart, no more fits the 
memory for retention of anything else, than the grav- 
ing of one sentence in lead makes it the more capable 
of retaining firmly any other characters " (7 : pp. 15-1- 
155). Improvement of memory can come only through 
the formation of habits of fixating attention and of 
orderly association. 

Thus, to sum up, learning by self -active, pleasur- 
able exercise of mental powers, directed in an orderly 
manner and constantly repeated, is the fundamental 
principle of intellectual education. 

Although learning was a matter of secondary im- 



54 MODERN EDUCATORS 

portance in Lockers plan for the education of a 
" yoiin^ jrtMitleman/' the curriculum he proposed was 
as rich as that of Comenius, and the practical sugges- 
tions he gives as to the teaching of each subject are of 
much worth. The subject-matter comprises: reading, 
writing, drawing, shorthand, French, Latin, geogra- 
pliy, arithmetic, chronology, history, geometry, as- 
tronomy, anatomy, ethics, law, English grammar, 
rhetoric taught in a practical way, letter-writing, 
natural philosophy containing biblical history, and 
physics. Gardening, carpentry, turning, varnishing, 
graving, metal and jeweler's work, and other manual 
occupations are recommended as healthful diversions. 
Bookkeeping also makes a part of a gentleman's use- 
ful accomplishments. He recommends dancing and 
wrestling, but depreciates music, painting, fencing, 
and riding, from one reason or another. The main 
difference between Locke and Comenius lies in that, 
while one considers knowledge and information in 
themselves of great value, as deserving the dignity of 
man, the other values these rather for their influence 
on the efficiency and happiness of actual life. Co- 
menius is often called the father of realistic peda- 
gogy, but in my opinion his ideals of education and 
curriculum are still largely humanistic and even 
scholastic. It is in Locke that we see the complete 
victory of realism. Bacon 's influence upon Comenius 
was mainly in his ideal of universal knowledge. But 
the real spirit of the new scientific learning found its 
true supporter in Locke. Comenius drew his philo- 



JOHN LOCKE 55 

sophical arguments for education from the Bible and 
from tlie analogy of Nature. But by Locke pedagogy 
was put upon a scientific basis — namely, physiology 
and psychology. 

At the opening of the chapter, I contrasted Locke 
as the pedagogue of private education with Comenius 
as that of public education. Comenius aimed at the 
enlightenment of the masses, so the machinery of 
school was necessarily of high importance ; hence the 
dictum: *' Good teacher, good books, good method." 
Locke, on the other hand, had in view the perfect 
bringing up of an individual; consequently, a good 
home with a good tutor was naturally esteemed above 
everything else. The advantage of group education 
lies, according to him, in that it will make a boy 
'' bolder, and better able to bustle and shift among 
boys of his own age; and the emulation of school- 
fellows often puts life and industry into young lads ' ' 
(7 : p. 46). And the main disadvantage of home edu- 
cation lies in that it makes a youth more ignorant 
of the w^orld; " wanting there change of company, 
and being used constantly to the same faces, he will, 
when he comes abroad, be a sheepish or conceited 
creature " (7: p. 46). But these shortcomings can 
be remedied by providing him good company at home 
and by later traveling. As for the inculcation of vir- 
tues and manners, home is decidedly the better place. 

" The difference is great between two or three 
pupils in the same house, and three or four score boys 



56 MODERN EDUCATORS 

lodged up and down; for let the master *s industry 
and skill be never so great, it is impossible he should 
liave fifty or a hundred scholars under his eye any 
longer than they are in tlie school together; nor can 
it be expected that he should instruct them success- 
fully in anything but their books; the forming of 
their minds and manners requiring a constant atten- 
tion, and particular application to every single boy, 
which is impossible in a numerous flock, and would 
be wholly in vain, (could be have time to study and 
correct every one's particular defects and wrong in- 
clinations) when the lad was to be left to himself, or 
the prevailing infection of his fellows, the greatest 
part of the four and twenty hours. 

' ' What qualities are ordinarily to be got from such 
a troop of play-fellows as schools usually assemble 
together from parents of all kinds, that a father 
should so much covet, is hard to divine " (7 : pp. 48- 
49). 

Thus we see that while Comenius pointed to an 
ideal school and preached its gospel, Locke, by show- 
ing us the defects of the school, persuades us to flee 
into his idealized home. The actual condition of the 
average home and the increasing need of modern so- 
ciety makes the school indispensable, in spite of its 
imperfections as an educational institution. Never- 
theless, it is well for us always to keep our eyes open 
to the defects and danglers of mass education. 



JOHN LOCKE 57 

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58 MODERN EDUCATORS 

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67 pages. 



CHAPTER IV 

JEAN JACQUES ROUSSEAU 

(1712-1778) 

The limitation of the Lockean philosophy of edu- 
cation is the limitation of his personality. His prac- 
tical, utilitarian, and rationalistic pedagogy may be 
good for making an efficient and respectable member 
of society, but cannot meet the demands of the whole 
human soul. Fortunately his pedagogy found its 
successor in just the right kind of man. What Nature 
spared in this English gentleman she bestowed lux- 
uriantly upon the French artist. 

In Rousseau we strike the prodigy of the peda- 
gogic world. Such a personality is rare, and Nature 
will probably not produce another Rousseau. He was 
a man of no schooling and no discipline. His life 
was, in a sense, a life of vagabondage and of aban- 
donment. He was, in the eye of Carlyle, ' ' a morbid, 
excitable, spasmodic man,'' whose motive principle 
was ' ' a mean hunger, ' ' whose faults and miseries are 
summarized by the single word, egoism. But it was 
to this egoist, this sensualist, that Madame de Stael 
attributes the honor of having inspired women to vir- 

59 



60 MODERN EDUCATORS 

tue as no other man ever did. And it was to this 
uneducated vagabond that the Western world owes 
the revolution in its politics and thought. 

The Puritan prophet counted Rousseau among his 
heroes in spite of his constitutional hate of the man, 
granting to him this one virtue— the heroism of in- 
tense sincerity. I would add to this another charac- 
teristic which makes him a genius, the intrinsic 
beauty and wealth of his emotional nature. He was 
a Frenchman in whose veins ran the blood of a Swiss 
mountaineer. In short, he was a bold incarnation of 
the artistic spirit. Absolute independence, freedom, 
and satisfaction of all that is instinctive and spon- 
taneous, this was the claim of his personality. But 
this, we know, is too beautiful a dream to be realized 
in the actual world of ours. Thus his early life of 
idyllic intoxication in the beauty of Nature and hu- 
man sentiments was soon shattered by the cruel hand 
of social conventions and prosaic actuality: see- 
ing the sacredness of instinctive nature everywhere 
trampled down by corrupted passions and vanities 
on the one hand, and by sophisticated refinement 
and cold ratiocination on the other, he raised the 
voice of protest against what they called culture and 
civilization, and made a plea for the entire reorgan- 
ization of human society and of the race itself. 
Freedom from pedantry of superficial learning and 
accomplishment, from the hypocrisy of conventional 
morality, manners, and religion, from slavery to all 
artificialities and externalities, the restoration of man 



JEAN JACQUES ROUSSEAU 61 

from his accessory life to his fundamental being, this 
is the center of his whole philosophy, which began 
in his negative answer to the question presented by 
the French Academy, '' whether the progress of sci- 
ences and arts has contributed to the corruption or 
the purification of morality," and culminates in his 
greatest work, " Emile," in which he sets forth what 
he conceives as the only salvation of the corrupted 
race. " Emile " is the boldest assertion of this bold- 
est child of Nature, and in the influence it has exer- 
cised upon the course of human thoughts and events 
we see the wonder of genius, and thus it will remain 
one of the rarest treasures in the educational litera- 
ture of mankind. This book is, in the words of Nie- 
nieyer, like '' a meteor which may blind and mislead 
a man, but at the same time can illumine regions 
into which the ordinary eye can only seldom pene- 
trate." Even Thomas Davidson, who shows little 
sympathy and poor appreciation of Rousseau, is 
obliged to acknowledge that '' it has been given to 
few men to exert, with their thought, an influence so 
deep and pervasive as that of Rousseau," and he 
traces the way in which this influence extended to 
" all departments of human activity, philosophy, 
science, religion, ethics, art, politics, economics, and 
pedagogy " (3: p. 224). Especially in regard to the 
last department, with which we are now concerned, 
we could truly say with Oscar Browning: '' He 
stands astride across the field of education. Nothing 
comes after him which is not affected by him " (1 : p. 



62 MODERN EDUCATORS 

153). So I might well add here that every one of us 
who is actually drinking from the stream which 
flowed down from him ought for once to go directly 
to its very source, and receive its refreshing bene- 
diction, which, in the phrase of John Morley, '' ad- 
mitted floods of light and air into tightly closed nur- 
series and schoolrooms " (8: ii, p. 249). 

Return to Nature ! was the war cry of Rousseauean 
pedagogy as it was that of his whole life and philoso- 
phy. Here is his often quoted passage with which 
he opens his proclamation of war against the con- 
ventional attitude of education : 

" All things are good as they come out of the 
hand of their Creator, but everything degenerates in 
the hand of man. . . . He is not content with any- 
thing in its natural state, not even with his own spe- 
cies. His very offspring must be trained up for him, 
like a horse in the menagerie, and be taught to grow 
after his own fancy, like a tree in his garden " (17 : i, 
p. 7). 

This may sound to some like an advocacy of laisscz 
faire principle. But the very word Nature presents 
an ideal, and to return to it or to preserve it, there is 
the need of educative effort. For: 

'* Should a man in a state of society be given up 
from the cradle to his own notions and conduct, he 
would certainly turn out the most preposterous of 
human beings. . . . His humanity would resemble a 
shrub, growing by accident in the highway, which 
would soon be destroyed by the casual injuries it 



JEAN JACQUES ROUSSEAU 63 

must receive from the frequent passenger " (17: i, 
pp. 7-8). 

To preserve and develop *' the natural man in a 
state of society '' (17: i, p. 337) is the aim of edu- 
cation. By " natural '' he does not necessarily 
mean primitive and savage traits of man only, but 
all those tendencies, dispositions, qualities, which are 
inherent, essential, and universal to all mankind, 
whether inborn or developed in life and society. He 
writes : 

*' After taking a comparative view of as many 
ranks and degrees of people as I have met with dur- 
ing a whole life spent in observing them, I have 
thrown aside as artificial all the peculiarities of par- 
ticular nations, ranks, and conditions; and have re- 
garded those things only as incontestably belonging 
to man which are common to men of all countries, 
ages, and circumstances of life " (17: ii, p. 79). 

From this view follows, however, the elevation of 
the generic fundamental traits of man which express 
themselves in his instincts, sentiments, intuitions, 
and common sense, accompanied by the depreciation 
of the individual mental superstructure, which is seen 
in our reason, learning, artistic accomplishments, etc. 
Thus, to interpret in modern terms, the development 
of the generic psychophysical organism is the essen- 
tial task of the education of the young as understood 
by Rousseau. 

There are three agents of education— Nature, men, 



64 MODERN EDUCATORS 

and circumstances. " The constitutional exertion of 
our organs and faculties is the education of nature : 
the uses we are taught to make of that exertion consti- 
tute the education given us by men ; and in the acqui- 
sitions made by our own experience on the objects 
that surround us consists our education from circum- 
stances " (17: i, p. 10). Of these, the first does not 
depend on ourselves, the second depends on us, and 
the third is under our power of control to a certain 
extent. So in order to secure the harmony of these 
three it is to the first that we must adjust the two 
others. Therefore, Nature— i. e., the law of the psy- 
chophysical organism of the child itself— must be the 
true nurse and trainer of the child. The function of 
an educator is simply to administer her oracle. 

Then let us hear some of the oracles of Nature: 
First of all: ^' Nature requires children to be chil- 
dren before they are men "; and '' by endeavoring 
to pervert this order we produce forward fruits, 
that have neither maturity nor taste, and will not 
fail soon to wither or corrupt " (17: i, p. 108). Be- 
ware of forcing upon the child any adult standard, 
for '' every age, every state of life has its peculiar 
degrees of perfection, a kind of maturity peculiar to 
itself " (17: i, p. 246). The end of life is in itself; 
our aim is to live our life to the full ; and this is hap- 
piness. ' ' To live is not merely to breathe ; it is to act, 
to make a proper use of our organs, our senses, our 
faculties, and of all those parts of the human frame 
which contribute to the consciousness of our existence. 



JEAN JACQUES ROUSSEAU 65 

The man who has lived most is not he who has sur- 
vived the greatest number of years, but he who has 
experienced most of life. A man may be buried at 
a hundred years of age who died in his cradle. Such 
a one would have been a gainer by dying young, at 
least if he had lived, in our sense of the word, till 
the time of his decease " (17: i, pp. 18-19). There- 
fore, let the child live its own present life, which is 
the only reality to him; " let us promote the happi- 
ness of man in every stage of life.'* 

From this viewpoint Rousseau directs his indigna- 
tion upon the current mode of education. He says: 

** "What can we think, then, of that barbarous 
method of education, by which the present is sacri- 
ficed to an uncertain future, by which a child is laid 
under every kind of restraint, and is made miserable, 
by way of preparing him for we know not what pre- 
tended happiness, which there is reason to believe he 
may never live to enjoy? Supposing it not unrea- 
sonable in its design, how can we see, without indig- 
nation, the unhappy innocents subjected to a yoke 
of insupportable rigor and condemned like galley- 
slaves to continual labor, without being assured that 
such mortifications and restrictions will ever be of any 
service to them ? The age of cheerfulness and gayety 
is spent in the midst of tears, punishments, threats, 
and slavery " (17: i, pp. 85-86). 

Liberty for all their healthful activities and en- 
joyments prompted and dictated by Nature, this is 
the fundamental Rousseauean dictum. 

Another collateral principle set up by Rousseau, 



66 MODERN EDUCATORS 

the full significance of which is only lately beginning 
to be realized, is that of education by inaction, by 
delay. He says: 

" May I venture here to lay down the greatest, 
most important, and most useful rule of education? 
It is this, not to gain time, but to lose it. . . . We 
should not tamper with the mind till it has acquired 
all its faculties; for it is impossible it should per- 
ceive the light we hold out to it while it is blind. 

'^ Let the infancy of children therefore have time 
to ripen. In short, whatever instruction is necessary 
for them, take care not to give it them to-day, if it 
may be deferred without danger till to-morrow " (17 : 
i, pp. 114-116). 

Do not imagine that there is no education when we 
ourselves do not instruct or train a child. '' Before 
he can speak, before he can understand, he is already 
instructed. Experience is the forerunner of pre- 
cept '^ (17: i, p. 57). There is little danger in in- 
trusting a child's growth to the hand of Nature, and 
"so long as we know not how to proceed, wisdom con- 
sists in remaining inactive '' (17: iii, p. 172). Thus 
he opposes teaching a child a multiplicity of things. 
Ignorance is better than imbibing superficial knowl- 
edge and false ideas. He also rallies the encyclo- 
pedists of his day, who were '' enamored by the 
charms of universal knowledge," and likens them 
to '' a child gathering shells on the seashore. He 
first loads himself indiscriminately with as many as 
he can carry; when, tempted by others of a gayer 



JEAN JACQUES ROUSSEAU 67 

appearance, he throws the first away, taking and re- 
jecting till fatigued and bewildered in his choice, he 
has thrown all away, and returns home without a 
single shell " (17: i, p. 270). There are so many 
things in the world which we all need not or should 
not know. Ignorance is as much virtue as knowledge. 
Elimination is probably as necessary for the true 
advancement of science and humanity as accumu- 
lation. 

But the knowledge he so much depreciates and the 
ignorance he thus advocates in children refer chiefly 
to words and books. According to him, the only true 
knowledge is that direct experience of reality which 
comes through the exercise of our organs and facul- 
ties; it is action that really instructs us. In his 
opinion : 

'' The multiplicity of books is destructive of sci- 
ence. Imagining the theory we have read in authors 
to be sufficient, we think ourselves excused from the 
trouble of learning the practice. Too much reading 
only encourages presumption and ignorance. . . . 
Such a multitude of books makes us forget the vol- 
ume of the world " (17: iii, pp. 188-189). 

Naturally he makes mockery of the naturalists who 
* ' study natural history in their cabinets, ' ' and would 
let his child Emile have '^ a cabinet much better 
furnished than that of crowned heads— the whole 
globe. '^ Teach the child wdth objects, by its own 
experience of them; never substitute the shadow un- 



68 MODERN EDUCATORS 

less where it is impossible to exhibit the substance; 
this is his general rule of instruction. 

The great psychological discovery proclaimed by 
Rousseau is that the child lives in a totally different 
world from that of grown-up people, that '' child- 
hood has its manner of seeing, perceiving, and think- 
ing, peculiar to itself " (17: i, p. 108). He says: 

'' We never know how to suppose ourselves in the 
place of children; we never enter into their manner 
of thinking. On the contrary, we attribute to them 
our ideas; and pursuing our own method of argu- 
mentation, fill their heads, even while we are dis- 
cussing incontestable truths, with extravagance and 
error " (17: i, p. 268). 

No writer has ever before entered so deeply into 
the child-soul, and many facts first discovered by his 
wonderful power of observation are borne out by the 
more recent systematic studies. He is entitled to the 
name of the discoverer of childhood, and can be called 
the forerunner of child study. 

Another great discovery made by Rousseau, which 
is related to the above, is that there are certain defi- 
nite stages in the natural development of the child 
to which modes of education should correspond. 
True, Comenius divided the whole educative period, 
which, in his conception, covers the period of physical 
growth, into four, and assigned for each of them a 
different institution. But his gradation was made 
rather artificially and arbitrarily, while Rousseau's 



JEAN JACQUES ROUSSEAU 69 

division was based on his careful observation of the 
actual evolution of the child's body and mind, the 
correctness of which is rather surprising in the light 
of modern science. 

The first epoch of human life begins with birth and 
ends with the time when the infant begins to eat 
and to walk. In this stage the principle of educating 
by inaction, on the part of the educator, by leaving 
the child to its natural development, is to be strictly 
observed. Absolute freedom should be granted to 
the child's growing physical being. He also made 
a strong plea for the personal care of the child by 
the mother, which is said to have created a fashion 
among aristocratic mothers of the day, of carrying 
their nurslings even to balls and parties. 

" Other women, nay brutes, might afford it the 
milk w4iich she refuses ; but the solicitude, the tender- 
ness of a mother cannot be supplied. . . . Would 
you have mankind return all to their natural du- 
ties, begin with the mothers of families; you will be 
astonished at the change this will produce. Almost 
every kind of depravation flows successively from this 
source ; the moral order of things is broken, the natu- 
ral quiet is subverted in our hearts; home is less 
cheerful and engaging; the affecting sight of a ris- 
ing family no more attaches the husband nor attracts 
the eyes of the stranger; the mother is less truly re- 
spectable whose children are not about her; families 
are no longer places of residence; habit no longer 
enforces the ties of blood; there are no fathers, no 
mothers, children, brothers, nor sisters; they hardly 
know, how should they love, each other? Each cares 



70 MODERN EDUCATORS 

for no one but himself; and when home affords only 
a melancholy solitude, it is natural for us to seek 
diversion elsewhere " (17: i, pp. 24-25). 

This impeachment made upon the depraved condi- 
tion of the aristocratic home in Prance of his day for- 
tunately sounds to us somewhat remote, but the 
appeal he made to the fathers is still to the point for 
our own generation. 

' ' A father, in begetting and providing for his chil- 
dren, has in that discharged but a third part of his 
obligations. He owes a being to his species, social 
beings to society, and citizens to the state. Everyone 
who is capable of paying this triple debt and refuses 
is, in that respect, criminal; and perhaps is more so 
when he pays it by halves. He who is incapable of 
performing the duties of a father has no right to be 
one. Neither poverty nor business nor personal im- 
portance can dispense with parents nursing and edu- 
cating their children '' (17: i, pp. 31-32). 

Although it is our duty to assist infants and sup- 
ply their deficiencies, since they are yet physical 
weaklings, yet " every assistance afforded them 
should be confined to real utility, without adminis- 
tering anything to the indulgence of their caprice or 
unreasonable humors" (17: i, p. 70). We must 
carefully study the meaning of their inarticulate 
speech and gestures, in order to distinguish between 
their natural wants and whimsical claims. The prin- 
ciple of the whole matter is " to give children more 
real liberty and less command ; to leave them more 



JEAN JACQUES ROUSSEAU 71 

to do of themselves than to require of others " (17 : i, 
p. 70). Thus they shall learn to confine their de- 
sires to their abilities, and harmony shall be estab- 
lished between the want and the power to satisfy it, 
the disparity of which is the source of all human mis- 
eries. He also speaks of the uselessness and harmful- 
ness of providing elaborate toys, and forcing speech 
too early upon the child. 

Now we come to what he calls the age of puerility, 
extending from the advent of speech to the dawn of 
puberty. ' ' His memory extends the sense of his iden- 
tity to every moment of his existence ; he becomes al- 
ways one and the same person, and of course already 
susceptible of happiness or misery. From this time 
therefore he must be considered as a moral being " 
(17: i, p. 85). If the preceding stage was the period 
of education by natural growth, this one is the period 
of training, but without instruction. His sensory- 
motor being is at its greatest activity, with the least 
activity in the thinking self. It is, therefore, preemi- 
nently the age for habit formation. Our principle 
still should be '' to lose time," so far as the inculca- 
tion of knowledge or ideas . is concerned. ' ' Teach 
nothing if you can help it " is to be the motto. Ac- 
tion is the monitor of the child at this age ; our busi- 
ness is simply to guide it without the air of restraint. 
To those who are alarmed at this idea Rousseau says : 

"Is it nothing, then, to spend his time in free- 
dom and happiness? Dancing, playing, and running 



72 MODERN EDUCATORS 

about all day, is this doing nothing? Depend on 
it, he will never be so fully employed again during 
life '' (17: i, p. 142). 

He compares the child whose undeveloped intellect 
is taxed in order to make the most of its time to one 
who, in his eagerness for work, determines never to 
go to sleep. '' Infancy is the sleep of Reason " (17: 
i, p. 143) ; by depriving her of it, you thrust her into 
the arms of death. 

*' The apparent facility with which children seem 
to learn, operates greatly to their prejudice and, 
though w^e do not observe it, is a plain proof that they 
learn nothing. ... A child retains the words, but 
the ideas accompanying them are reflected back 
again; those who hear him repeat, may understand 
what he means; but he himself knows nothing of the 
matter '' (17: i, p. 143). 

^' What, then, does it signify to imprint on their 
minds a catalogue of signs which to them represent 
nothing? ... In the very first unintelligible sen- 
tence with which a child sits down satisfied, in the 
very first thing he takes upon trust, or learns from 
others, without being himself convinced of its utility, 
he loses part of his understanding ; and he may figure 
long in the eyes of fools before he will be able to 
repair a considerable loss " (17: i, p. 152). 

And since ' ' no science consists in the knowledge of 
words, so there is no study proper for children " (17 : 
i, p. 152). Rousseau's pupil, Emile, " will hardly 
know what a book is at twelve years of age " (17: 



JEAN JACQUES ROUSSEAU 73 

i, p. 162). In his opinion, " reading is a vexation 
to children ; ... it is good for nothing, but to dis- 
gust and fatigue tliem till they see its use " ( 17 : i, 
p. 162). As for writing, he says he is ashamed of 
condescending to discuss such a trifling subject. On 
the other hand, the acquisition power of which chil- 
dren are possessed can be fully engaged in other things 
than studying books. Instead of beginning by teach- 
ing the child how to read and write according to the 
time-honored custom of his day, Rousseau would give 
it as much opportunity to gather, correct, and broaden 
sense experience as possible. 

'' Everything they see or hear appears striking, 
and they try to commit it to memory. A child keeps 
in his mind a register of the actions and conversation 
of those who are about him; every scene he is en- 
gaged in is a book, from which he insensibly enriches 
his memory, treasuring up his store till time will 
ripen his judgment and turn it to profit. It is in the 
choice of these scenes and objects, in the care of 
presenting those constantly to his view with which 
he ought to be familiar and in hiding from him such 
as are improper, that the true art of cultivating this 
primary faculty of a child consists. By such means 
also it is that we should endeavor to form that maga- 
zine of knowledge which should serve for his edu- 
cation in youth, and to regulate his conduct after- 
wards. This method, it is true, is not productive 
of little prodigies of learning, nor does it tend to 
enhance the character of governess or preceptor ; but 
it is the way to form robust and judicious men, per- 
sons sound in body and mind, who, without being ad- 
6 



74 MODERN EDUCATORS 

mired while children, know how to make themselves 
respected when grown up " (17: i, pp. 153-154). 

'^ During the time that their supple and delicate 
organs are adapted to making experiments on bodies 
while their senses are as yet exempt from illusions; 
this is the interval in which we should exercise both 
the one and the other in their proper functions; 
this is the time to teach children the perceptible 
relations of things. As everything that enters into 
human understanding is introduced by the senses, 
the first kind of ratiocination in man is a kind of 
sensitive reasoning; and this serves as the basis of 
his intellectual reason. Our first instructors in philos- 
ophy are our feet, hands, and eyes. In substituting 
books in their place we do not learn to reason, but to 
content ourselves with the reasoning of others; we 
learn indeed to believe a great deal, but to know 
nothing " (17: i, pp. 180-181). 

If in the former period the educator simply min- 
istered to the call of the child's organism, in this sec- 
ond period he adjusts the environment to it. The 
close relation between the muscular and mental devel- 
opment is a great discovery of modern science. Yet 
with what an intuition of genius Rousseau has 
already seen this ! He writes : 

'' It is a wretched mistake to think the exercise of 
the body prejudicial to the operations of the mind ; as 
if the action of both were incompatible, or that the 
one could not always direct the other " (17 : i, p. 166). 

" In proportion as the sensitive becomes an active 
being, he acquires a discernment proportional to his 
corporeal abilities; when he possesses more of the lat- 



JEAN JACQUES ROUSSEAU 75 

ter, also, than are necessary for his preservation, it is 
witli that redundancy, and not before, that he dis- 
plays those speculative faculties which are adapted to 
the employment of such abilities to other purposes " 
(17: i, p. 165). 

Moreover, ' ' our limbs and our organs . . . are the 
instruments of our intelligence ; and in order to make 
the best use of these instruments, it is necessary that 
the body furnishing them should be robust and 
healthy " (17 : i, p. 181). 

Therefore, Rousseau advocates the natural motor 
training which children receive in their free outdoor 
play as the most effective and solid form of intellec- 
tual culture. It not only secures the mental vigor, 
but also extends the sphere of our experience and 
knowledge : " it teaches us to become acquainted with 
the proper exertion of our forces, the relation our 
bodies bear to those which surround us, the use of 
those natural implements which are within our 
reach, and which are adapted to our organs " ( 17 : i, 
p. 179). Besides, free play is a good, if not the best, 
emotional culture we can give a young child, because 
the harmony of heart comes from the balance be- 
tween desires and capacity to satisfy them, and in 
the full exercise of his instinctive healthful activities, 
this is vouchsafed. 

In this way a full-grown child is built up— not 
young professors and old children, of which we have 
so many; indeed, too many. He does not represent a 
perfection of manhood, but of childhood, which is a 
totally different thing. 



76 MODERN EDUCATORS 

" Ilis figure, attitude, and countenance speak as- 
surance and contentment; his face is the picture of 
liealth ; his firm step gives him an air of strength and 
vigor; his complexion, delicate without being pale 
and wan, has notliing in it of effeminate softness, the 
sun and the wind having already given to his skin 
the honorable tint of his sex; his features, though 
still plump, begin to show some distinguishing marks 
of physiognomy; his eyes, as yet unanimated by the 
glow of sentiment, have all their natural serenity; 
they are not grown dull and heavy from care and 
sorrow, nor have incessant tears made furrows in 
his cheeks. On the contrary, you may see, in his 
alert but steady motions, the vivacity of his age, the 
firmness of his independence, and the experience he 
has gained from the many and various exercises to 
which he has been accustomed. He has an open and 
liberal mien, without the least air of insolence or van- 
ity ; as he has not been kept poring over his books, his 
looks are not directed downward, nor is there any 
occasion to bid him hold up his head, neither fear 
nor shame ever made him hang it down '' (17: i, 
p. 249). 

As to his intellect : 

'' His ideas, it is true, are confined, but clear; if 
he knows nothing by rote, he knows a great deal by 
experience. If he has read less than other children 
in printed volumes, he has read much more in the 
volume of nature. His understanding does not lie 
on his tongue, but in his brain ; he has less memory 
than judgment ; he can speak only one language, but 
then he understands what he says, and though he 
may not talk of tilings so well as others, he will do 
them much better " (17: i, p. 250), 



JEAN JACQUES ROUSSEAU 77 

He is not a shadowy reflection of printed words 
and external authorities, but a whole-hearted expres- 
sion of life and soul. 

" Whether he is at work or at play, he knows no 
difference ; both are alike to him ; his diversions are 
his business. In everything he does, he is gayly 
interested, and pleasingly at liberty; displaying at 
once the turn of his genius and the compass of his 
knowledge '' (17: i, p. 253). 

Till the age of puberty, the whole course of child 
life was " one continous series of imbecility " (17: 
i, p. 256). His strength was deficient to meet all 
the wants and necessities arising from his inner im- 
pulse. It was, on the whole, the period of accumu- 
lation of energy. Now follows that of its superabun- 
dance and overflowing. The abilities he possesses 
exceed his wants. " Considered as a man, he is very 
weak, but as a child, he is abundantly strong. ' ' This 
period of early adolescence " contains the most pre- 
cious moments of his life — moments never to return, 
few and transitory, hence the more precious " ( 16 : 
i, p. 258). 

He is now first freed from the necessities of the 
immediate present, and can look for other things than 
those pertaining to self-preservation. Consequently, 
' ' he should throw . . . the superfluity of his present 
being into his future existence. The robust child 
should provide for the subsistence of the feeble man ; 
... to appropriate his acquisitions to himself, he 



78 MODERN EDUCATORS 

will secure them in the strength and dexterity of his 
own arms, and in the capacity of his own head. This, 
therefore, is the time for employment, for instruction, 
for study *' (17: i, p. 259). During the preceding 
period we had to lose time. ^' The case is now 
altered, and we have not time sufficient for every- 
thing that might be useful." The moment of emo- 
tional storm is approaching; '' the term of impas- 
sionate intelligence is short and transitory. ' ' Yet art 
is long. The principle, therefore, should be not to 
make the child '' an adept in the sciences, but to give 
him a taste for them, and point' out the method of 
improving it " (17: i, p. 270). As to the subjects 
of study and their order, the standard must be our 
natural inclination and interest. And, according to 
Rousseau, our intellectual curiosity and efforts as well 
as physical activities are prompted by our fundamen- 
tal instinct: the constant pursuit of happiness and 
avoidance of unhappiness. '' Our innate desire of 
happiness, and the impossibility of fully gratifying 
that desire, are the cause of our constant researches 
after new expedients to contribute to that end " (17: 
i, p. 261). And with the development of the organ- 
ism, with the increase of its powers and desires, the 
sphere of its intellectual interest expands. " During 
our infant state of weakness and incapacity, all our 
thoughts, influenced by self-preservation, are con- 
fined within ourselves. On the contrary, in a more 
advanced age, as our abilities increase, the desire of 
improving our existence carries us out of ourselves, 



JEAN JACQUES ROUSSEAU 79 

and our ideas extend to the utmost limits. As the in- 
tellectual world, however, is as yet unknown to us, our 
thoughts cannot extend further than we can see; but 
our comprehension dilates itself with the bounds of 
the space " (17: i, p. 202). This is the age we have 
now reached. So the first science to be taught shall 
be physics, in its widest sense— the study of the phe- 
nomena of Nature. 

As to the method of teaching natural sciences, 
Rousseau was the first who truly and fully embodied 
the Baconian principle in pedagogy. His way was 
to let a child study the concrete, living nature, with 
his own eyes and hands, under the guidance of an 
expert, who understands the child nature as well as 
the objective nature. Although these ideas may be 
considered impractical and one-sided, they, neverthe- 
less, sound with a good ring, in this present age, 
when science instruction has sunk into a second 
scholasticism and verbalism. Let me quote a few 
passages : 

' ' In the first place, you are to consider how seldom 
it is proper for you to propose what he is to learn; 
it is his place to desire to know, to seek for, to dis- 
cover it: it is yours artfully to excite his desire, to 
place the object within his reach, and furnish him 
with the means of attaining it " (17: i, pp. 285-286). 

" Direct the attention of your pupil to the phe- 
nomena of nature, and you will soon awaken his curi- 
osity; but to keep that curiosity alive, you must be 
in no haste to satisfy it. Put questions to him adapted 
to his capacity, and leave him to resolve them. Let 



so JMODEIIN EDUCATORS 

him take nothing on trust from his preceptor, but on 
his own comprehension and conviction : he should not 
learn, but invent the sciences. If you ever substitute 
authority in the place of argument, he will reason 
no longer; he will be ever afterwards bandied like a 
shuttlecock between the opinions of others " (17: i, 
p. 263). 

" The mere speculative part of science is by no 
means adapted to children, even when they approach 
adolescence ; ... In your researches into the laws of 
nature, begin always with the most common and obvi- 
ous phenomena, accustoming your pupil to look upon 
them always as mere facts " (17: i, pp. 280-281). 

The following passage because of its recognition of 
a much neglected principle deserves to be hung upon 
the wall of every schoolroom: 

** Among the many admirable methods taken to 
abridge the study of the sciences, we are in great want 
of one to make us learn with difficulty'^ (17: i, 
p. 280). 

The fundamental cause of the superficiality and 
ineffectiveness of our school instruction lies in our 
mistaken desire to teach as many things as possible 
in as short a time as possible. This leads to the 
insistence on a precocious application to the studies 
beyond children's interest and experience. And we 
complacently believe that we can make them under- 
stand these })y tlie abundance of explanation on our 
part. But this helps not a whit. In the words of 
Kousseau : 



JEAN JACQUES KOUSSEAU 81 

** I do not at all admire explanatory discourses; 
young people give little attention to them, and never 
retain them in their memory. The things themselves 
are the best explanations. I can never enough repeat 
it, that we make words of too much consequence ; with 
our prating modes of education, we make nothing but 
praters " (17 : i, p. 286). 

Introduction of work interest— i. e., the motive of 
utility— belongs to this stage. *' As soon as we are 
so far advanced as to give our pupil an idea of the 
word useful, we have attained a considerable influence 
over his future conduct, this term being very strik- 
ing, provided the sense annexed to it be adapted to 
his years, and he see clearly its relation to his present 
welfare. ' ' Remember that the utility must always be 
considered from the child's point of view, not from 
ours. " A child knows he is designed to grow up to 
manhood ; all the ideas he can form of that state will 
be to him so many opportunities of instruction; but 
as for those which are above his capacity to compre- 
hend, it is better he should remain in absolute igno- 
rance of them " (17: i, p. 284). 

Rousseau thought that the teaching of history and 
morality had no place in the education of early ado- 
lescents; their interest is in the objects of Nature, but 
not in men and society. 

Being thus educated at the end of early adolescence, 

" Emile has but little knowledge, but what he has 
is truly his own. . . . He possesses a universal ca- 
pacity, not in point of actual knowledge, but in the 



82 MODERN EDUCATORS 

faculties of acquiring it ; an open, intelligent genius, 
adapted to everything, and, as Montaigne says, if not 
instructed, capable of receiving instruction " (17; i, 
pp. 3-11-342). 

This is, according to Rousseau, by far a better 
equipment for a boy than the smattering of multiple 
knowledge vv^ith the sense of saturation. In point of 
morality he is still nothing more than an animal 
following his natural instincts and impulses, which, 
not being spoiled by our artificiality, are healthful, 
and will build up themselves, as his age matures, into 
harmonious sentiments. 

Now we come to the period of storm and stress, 
** the presumptive period," the educational signifi- 
cance of which is so great, yet hitherto has been so 
little considered. 

*' As the roaring of the sea precedes the tempest, 
so the murmuring of the passions portends this 
stormy revolution. The foaming surge foretells the 
approach of danger. A change of disposition, fre- 
quent starts, and a continual agitation of mind, ren- 
der the pupil intractable. He becomes deaf to the 
voice of his preceptor ; like a lion in his fury, he dis- 
dains his guide, and will no longer submit to be gov- 
erned." 

*' These moral indications of changing dispositions 
are accompanied by a visible alteration in the person. 
His features assume a character ; then tlie soft down, 
upon his chin begins to gather strength. His voice is 
lost between hoarseness and squeaking: for being 
neither man nor boy, he has the tone of neither. His 



JEAN JACQUES ROUSSEAU 83 

eyes, those organs of the mind, hitherto inexpressive, 
learn to speak; animated with a lively flame, their 
looks, though more expressive, are yet pure and inno- 
cent; but they have lost their primitive dullness and 
insipidity. He already feels their power of expres- 
sion, . . . He perceives his sensibility before he knows 
what he feels ; he is restless without knowing the cause 
of his disquietude " (17: ii, p. 2). 

Here commences the second birth of man. '* At 
this stage man is truly born to live, and enters into 
full possession of the power of human nature " (17: 
ii, p. 3). This dawning of the sexual life is the birth 
of the social self: man's moral relations now truly 
begin. Up to this time self-love was the only real 
motive of his life, but now love of another self comes 
in, and if it is directed well, this will extend to 
wider and wider range. The time is reached when 
one's study should be man and human society; when 
youth should be initiated into the world of his fellow 
beings ; when moral instruction proper should begin ; 
when religion can be taught effectively. Rousseau's 
insight into the infant mind was wonderful; still 
deeper is his understanding of adolescent psychol- 
ogy. He would be immortal even if he left us noth- 
ing but just this part of his '' Emile." Many peda- 
gogues would allow themselves to be led by Nature, 
so long as they are treating with young children, but 
as soon as they reach the age of puberty or adoles- 
cence they leave her or else loosen their responsi- 
bility to their pupil. Rousseau, on the contrary, 



84 MODERN EDUCATORS 

would stick more to the laws of Mother Nature, and 
take the more responsibility upon his shoulders. He 
says: " Our care hitherto has been little more than 
children's play; it now becomes of real importance. 
This era, where common education ends, is properly 
the time where ours should begin " (17: ii, p. 3). 
"What unites man to man is firstly his heart's need 
of companions. '^ All his connections with his spe- 
cies, all the affections of his soul, are born with this 
sensation. His first passion soon ferments the other 
into being " (17 : ii, p. 7). Then, secondly, it is one's 
sense of weakness, his insufficiency, our common 
misery, that render him social, incline his heart to 
humanity. Lastly, emotion and imagination are 
closely connected, and the rise in emotional life stim- 
ulates the power to realize other's sufferings and joys 
—another connecting link of mankind. Until we 
come to the age of adolescence these elements are all 
lacking in the child. But, now, with the sudden out- 
burst of emotions, moral education is not only possi- 
ble, but most ardently needed. 

■ '' To excite and nourish this growing sensibility ; 
to guide or follow it in its natural propensity, it will 
be necessary to throw such objects in the way of our 
young pupil as will most effectually dilate his heart, 
extend it to other beings, and separate him from 
liimself ; to hide earefvdly from his view those objects 
which, on the contrary, tend to contract the lieart, 
and compress the spring of iiuman selfishness ; in otlier 
terms, to inspire liim witli goodness, luimanity, com- 
passion, benevolence, and all the soft attractive pas- 



JEAN JACJQUES ROUSSEAU 85 

sions which are so pleasing to mankind ; and to stifle 
envy, liatred, and all those cruel and inhuman appe- 
tites, which, if I may be allowed the phrase, render 
sensibility not only null, but negative, becoming the 
torment of those who possess them " (17: ii, p. 22). 

The pomp and luxury of rank, class, and wealth, 
*' the charms of public entertainments, polite circles, 
and brilliant assemblies," tend to sow the seeds of 
pride, vanity, and envy, and give a man a superficial 
view of life and human felicity. These are not the 
places for youth. If we come across the splendor of 
the rich and fortunate, show him the other aspect 
of their existence. Let him learn all the vicissitudes 
of fortune. Teach him to separate appearance from 
reality, the accidental from the inherent; to put no 
value on birth, rank, or riches, but estimate and re- 
spect man as man. The contact with the life of the 
common people is more educative than the society of 
the rich and high classes. For the former presents 
the truer picture of humanity, with its toils and suf- 
ferings. It, at the same time, cultivates in him the 
sense of contentment with his lot and compassion with 
others. By thus directing the newly arisen impulse 
of love into a broader channel, we may hope to 
" blunt the dangerous edge of inclination and divert 
the attention of nature while w^e follow her dictates ' ' 
(17:ii,p.37). 

Sex pedagogy, which has lately come to be one 
of the burning questions in education, already re- 
ceived full attention from Rousseau. '' A total igno- 



86 MODERN EDUCATORS 

ranee of certain things," he thinks, " were perhaps 
the most to be wished; but children should learn 
betimes what it is impossible always to conceal from 
them." Avoid any words or conduct before them, 
whicli might become the cause of their curiosity. 
When their curiosity about the matter is premature 
or not genuine, you may impose silence upon them 
with safety. It is much better than telling a false- 
hood. '' Your conduct with regard to your pupil 
greatly depends on his particular situation ; the peo- 
l^le by whom he is surrounded, and many other cir- 
cumstances. It is of importance to leave nothing to 
chance; and if you are not positively certain that 
you can keep him ignorant of the difference of sex 
till the age of sixteen, be careful to let him know it 
before the age of ten " (17: ii, p. 11). But when 
he reaches the age of sixteen or so, ' ' make no scruple 
to instruct him in those dangerous mysteries, which 
you so long and so carefully concealed from his 
sight " (17: ii, p. 204). Your instruction must '' be 
concise, serious, and determined, without seeming to 
hesitate" (17: ii, p. 11). Of course, strict truth 
must be told and at the same time the matter im- 
pressed upon him as the most sacred thing. 

As for the measures to retard the progress of 
Nature in him, books, solitude, idleness, a sedentary 
and effeminate life, the company of young people is 
to be avoided. The citj^ is not a proper abode for 
many plain reasons, so the boy should be taken out 
into the country. " He must have some new exer- 



JEAN JACQUES ROUSSEAU 87 

cise, which shall engage him by its novelty, keep him 
fully employed, and administer to his pleasure and 
diversion " (17: ii, p. 207). 

However, as age advances there will come a time 
when these negative means no longer w^ork. Then 
must positive measures be taken in order to lead the 
youth to the proper road of sex relation. " The 
passions can never be mastered but by themselves: 
by their empire you must combat their tyranny." 
So Rousseau w^ould flatter now, instead of suppress, 
this noble passion in his pupil, and endeavor to 
make its fire burn pure. " By rendering him 
sensible of the charms which a union of hearts 
adds to the allurement of sense, I shall give him a 
disrelish to debauchery, and render him wise, by in- 
spiring him with love " (17 : ii, p. 221). Then, after 
preparing him by the formation, in his mind, of the 
picture of an ideal girlhood or womanhood, we lead 
him to the society of the other sex, to the life of 
courtship, which is a great education in itself. 

The interest in the world is now keen; the judg- 
ment and discretion are fairly matured. The youth 
can go into it with much benefit and little danger, 
if his previous training has been successful. The 
study of history and biographj^ will now give him 
also a knowledge of human nature. 

Rousseau's pupil Emile finds his angel in Sophia, 
who is by no means " such a model of perfection 
as now^here exists," but an innocent healthy coun- 
try girl, " with such defects as shall hit his taste, 



88 MODERN EDUCATORS 

shall please him, and help to correct his own " (17: 
ii, p. 225). While courting Sophia, Emile learns 
a trade, mingles with the common people, and ex- 
tends his service to those who need it. By this 
means not only his feelings, which are now intensi- 
fied and deepened, expand to all humanity, but he 
also learns the psychology of unsophisticated souls, 
the sociology of real life, the vital problems of civica 
and economics. He conceives such social service as 
a great educational means for later adolescence. 
And striking it is that Rousseau so perfectly antici- 
pated the essential principles of social-settlement 
work in the following passages: 

'' Tire practice of the social virtues roots the love 
of humanity in the bottom of our hearts. By doing 
good actions w^e become good ourselves; I know of no 
method more certain. Employ your pupil in every 
good action within his power; teach him to consider 
the interest of the indigent as his own; let him not 
only assist them with his purse, but with his care; 
he must protect them and dedicate his person and 
time to their service '^ (17 : ii, pp. 70-71). 

'^ His active beneficence produces a knowledge 
which, with a more obdurate heart, he would have 
acquired much later, or perhaps not at all. If dis- 
cord reigns among his comi3anions, he endeavors to 
reconcile them; if he sees his fellow-creatures in 
affliction, he inquires into the cause; if the wretched 
groan under the oppression of the great and powerful, 
he will not rest till he has detected the iniquity of 
the oppressor " (17: ii, p. 73). 

'' Tlius interested in the welfare of his fellow- 



JEAN JACQUES ROUSSEAU 89 

creatures, he will soon learn to estimate their actions, 
their tastes, their pleasures, a^d in general to fix a 
truer value on what will promote or destroy human 
felicity than those who know no interest separate 
from their own, and who act only for themselves " 
(17:ii, p. 75). 

Comenius already stood for education according to 
Nature; in Locke the conception developed and be- 
came more psychological. But with the former, the 
child was subjected to the Bible ; with the latter, to 
the present society; it was in the " Naturevangelium 
der Erziehung " of Rousseau that the nature of the 
child was entirely liberated from every bondage, and 
made the sole guidance for education. His pedagogy 
rested on his observational psychology, and his psy- 
chology had a basis in biology. The body was not for 
him as it was for his predecessors, a mere '' clay cot- 
tage " for the mind. But the soul and life were one. 
Man as a unified psychological organism was the con- 
ception on which his pedagogy rested. 

Some one has said that Romanticism is the vaca- 
tion of philosophy. We may also say that it is a 
rejuvenation, a revitalization of philosophy. No mat- 
ter what our opinions are, it would do us all great 
good to take a vacation, if you please, and take fresh 
air, in this great gospel of educational Romanticism, 
especially when we reflect that our education has 
been so long under control of the pedagogic theories 
made by scholars whose interest and viewpoint always 
smell of the air of their study rooms. Man does not 



90 MODERN EDUCATORS 

live by brain alone; he lives more by action and by 
heart. This discovery we owe to the great book of 
prophecies left by the greatest vagabond tlie Avorld 
of letters has ever crowned with honor, Jean Jacques 
Rousseau. 

REFERENCES 

1. Browning, Oscar, An Introduction to the History of 

Educational Theories. Kellogg, New York, 1880. 
237 pages. 

2. CoMPAYRE, Jules Gabriel. History of Pedagogy. 

Translated, with an introduction, notes, and an index, 
by W. H. Payne. Heath & Co., Boston, 1899. 598 
pages, 

3. Davidson, Thomas. Rousseau and Education According 

to Nature. Scribner, New York, 1898, 253 pages. 

4. GiRALDiN, Saint-Marc. J. J. Rousseau, sa vie et ses 

ou\Tages, 2 vols. Charpentier, Paris, 1875. 

5. Heman, Friedrich. Geschichte der neueren Padagogik. 

Zickfeldt, Osterwieck, 1904, 436 pages. 

6. Lemaitre, Jules, J. J. Rousseau. Calmann-Le\'y, 

Paris, 1807. 360 pages, 

7. Monroe, Paul. A Text-book in the History of Educa- 

tion, Macmillan Co., London and New York, 1905. 
772 pages, 

8. MoRLEY, John. Rousseau. 2 vols. Chapman, Lon- 

don, 1873. 

9. MuNROE, James Phinney. The Educational Ideal: an 

Outline of its Growth in Modern Times. Heath & 
Co., Boston, 1896. 262 pages. 
10. Quick, Robert Hebert. Essays on Educational Re- 
formers. Appleton, New York, 1890. 560 pages. 
The same (International Education Series), 1903. 
568 pages. 



JEAN JACQUES ROUSSEAU 91 

11. Raumer, Karl von. Geschichte der Padagogik vom 

Wiederaufbliihen klassischer Studien bis auf unsere 
Zeit. 5 vols. Bertelsmann, Giitersloh, 1882-1897. 
Vols. Ill and IV. Parts I and II. 

12. Rein, Georg Wilhelm, editor. Encyklopiidisches 

Handbuch der Padagogik. 8 vols. Beyer, Langen- 
salza, 1895-1906. Vol. VI. 

13. Rousseau, Jean Jacques. (Euvres completes. 13 vols. 

Hachette, Paris, 1886-1903. 

14. Emile, ou de I'education. Xouvelle edition. Gar- 

nier, Paris, 1904. 638 pages. 

lo. Emile; or Concerning Education. Extracts concern- 
ing the Principal Elements of Pedagogy found in the 
First Three Books. With Introduction and Notes by 
Jules Steeg. Translated by Eleanor Worthington. 
Heath & Co., Boston, 1888. 157 pages. 

16. Emile ; or Treatise on Education. Abridged, trans- 
lated, and annotated by W. H. Payne. Appleton, 
New York, 1893. 363 pages. (International Edu- 
cation Series.) 

17. Emilius. 3 vols. A. Donaldson, Edinburgh, 1768. 

18. Emilius. Translated by Eloisa. 4 vols. Second 

edition. Becke & de Hondt, London, 1763. 

19. Schaumann, Gustav. Religion und religiose Erziehung 

bei Rousseau. Siegismund, Leipzig, 18 — . 80 pages 
(Pad. Sammelmappe, 181 Heft.) 

20. Scherer, Heinrich. Die Padagogik in ihrer Entwick- 

lung im Zusammenhange mit dem Kultur- und 
Geistesleben und ihrem Einfluss auf die Gestaltung 
des Erziehungs- und Bildungswesens. Vol. I. Die 
Padagogik vor Pestalozzi. Brandstetter, Leipzig, 
1897. 581 pages. 

21. ScHMiD, Karl Adolf, editor. Geschichte der Erziehung 

vom Anfang an bis auf unsere Zeit. 5 vols. Cotta, 
Stuttgart, 1884-1902. Vol. IV, Parts I and II. 



92 MODERN EDUCATORS 

22. Schneider, Karl. Rousseau und Pestalozzi, der Ideal- 

ismus auf deutschen und auf franzosischen Boden. 
Fifth edition, (liirtner, Berlin, l.SOr). 63 pages. 

23. Spielmann, C. Christian. Die Meister der Padafi;of2;ik 

naeh ihren Leben, ihren Werken und ihrer Bedeu- 
tung. Heufer, Neuwied, 1904-1905, 365 pages. 
Part IV. 

24. Spitzner, R. a. Natur und Naturmassigkeit bei J. J. 

Rousseau. Frommann, Jena, 1891. 103 pages. 

25. ZiEGLER, Theobald. Geschiehte der Padagogik mit 

besonderer Riicksicht auf das hcihere Unterriehts- 
wesen. Beck^ Miinchen, 1895. 361 pages. 



CHAPTER V 

BASEDOW AND KANT 

Johann Bernard Basedow 
(1723-1790) 

The revolutionary ideas contained in Rousseau's 
works shook the whole social structure of France so 
violently that his educational theories were unable to 
make any systematic and lasting impression. It was 
the neighboring Germans who received them as the 
fire for their rising aspiration and the antidote for 
the existing evils in the field of education. At the 
head of this new educational movement in Germany 
under the Rousseauean influence stands Johann Ber- 
nard Basedow. 

There is almost nothing in Basedow's fundamental 
ideas of education which was not said by his three 
great predecessors and La Chalotais. But while 
these men were too much ahead of their time, Base- 
dow, with his shrewd perception, saw the practical 
needs and tendencies of the age, to which he knew 
how to accommodate himself. Moreover, he, with his 
strong, though unstable, energy of will and inde- 

93 



94 MODERN EDUCATORS 

fatigable fighting spirit, could accomplish what schol- 
arly Comenius, modest Locke, or the visionary Rous- 
seau could not. He blazed the way for the march 
of realistic and naturalistic pedagogy against the 
tenacious resistance of traditional forces, and " suc- 
ceeded in effecting a complete change in the whole 
nature of education and instruction in Germany " 
(8: p. 580). The establishment of the Philanthro- 
pium in 1774, which was continued by Wolke, Salis, 
Bahrdt, Trapp, Campe, Rochow, Salzmann, and 
others, heralds the dawn of new education in Teutonic 
countries. If Basedow was not great as an educator 
or an original thinker, he was, in the best sehse, one 
of the greatest educational politicians or agitators we 
have had in the history of the world. 

In the '' Philalethie, " one of his earlier works, he 
already raises the voice of protest against the inef- 
fective, futile, and one-sided education of his day. 
* ' Are not there too many doctors ? * ' he writes. ' ' How 
many of the professors, doctors, or masters will make 
themselves more useful by working with their hands, 
by becoming turners, etc. ? It is certain that parents 
push their children too much to the scholarly studies, 
w^hen the children would do much better to learn 
commerce, surgery, book trade, fine arts, and espe- 
cially agriculture.'* Again he sneers in the vein of 
Montaigne at " the learned men who are praised for 
the dissertations on Virgil and Homer, Corneille and 
Racine, etc., but who neglect to be good husbands, 
to instruct their children, to supervise their house- 



BASEDOW AND KANT 95 

holds, to be good friends, and to perform well their 
duties," and accuses the mistaken purpose and 
method of learning which " prevents one from living 
with the people " (9: pp. 190-191). 

He proclaims that the " chief purpose of educa- 
tion should be to prepare the child for a useful, 
public-spirited and happy life " (5: p. 42). To se- 
cure one's own happy existence and to promote the" 
general good of mankind is the end of individual 
life. By the happiness of an individual he under- 
stands a self-contented, cheerful existence, with a 
*' sound mind in a sound body." Not mere knowl- 
edge 'or accomplishment, but efficiency and virtue, 
power and character, are the essential things in man. 
So, instruction, though important, occupies only a 
secondary place ; the training, the formation of man- 
hood, by inculcating good habits and dispositions, 
by guarding against the establishing of bad ones, is 
the first and chief task of education. In these re- 
spects Basedow is entirely Lockean. Requirement of 
absolute obedience for younger children, appeals to 
the sense of honor as the chief educative motive, are 
also common in both. 

In the initiation of children to language study 
through play and playthings, in the abundant use of 
pictures, models, globes, etc., as the handmaid of 
verbal teaching, in the introduction of more realistic 
studies and manual activities, in the encouragement 
of physical culture, he again follows Locke's sugges- 
tions, but carried them into details and elaborations 



96 MODERN EDUCATORS 

in the practice in his institution. The emphasis laid 
on the physical culture in the rhilanthropium espe- 
cially became an incentive and model to others ; Jahn, 
the father of German gymnastics, is numbered among 
those who have been inspired by Basedow. 

In writing a text-book for children, comprising 
elementary knowledge of everything that ought to 
be known, Basedow took as his model Comenius's 
'' Orbis Pictus." His didactics of language owes 
much to Comenius as well as to Locke. And in " The 
Book of Methods for Fathers and Mothers of Families 
and for the People ^' he foreshadows Pestalozzi. He 
believed with Comenius that the remedy for a large 
part of educational evils lies in '' good teachers and 
good books. ' ' So, besides the text-books, there should 
be ail abundance of supplementary reading for the 
children and reference books for the teacher; school 
libraries should be established for the use of both. 
Institutions should be established for the professional 
training of teachers, with the model schools attached. 
In fact, the Philanthropium made the beginning of 
the normal school in its modern sense, and the flour- 
ishing age of juvenile literature came as the result 
of Basedow's teachings. 

The natural development of the child into an ideal 
citizen, through a free life of frolic and unrestrained 
pleasurable learning and occupations, was the central 
idea of Basedowean education. Rousseau's motto, 
'' The child for the child," was not well understood 
by him or did not appeal to him. The chief inspi- 



BASEDOW AND KANT 97 

ration he drew from the French Romanticist was 
tlie principle, " the child as the child." And the 
child, in his understanding, was essentially a gay- 
ety-seeking, pleasure-seeking, noisy, restless creature. 
" Children are fond of movement and noise " (7: 
p. 23). This w^as the major premise of his didac- 
tic. But utility was another central principle which 
he shared with all French and English empiricists. 
And his conception of utility was more like Locke's 
than Rousseau's, namely, that viewed from the stand- 
point of society and the adult life. The child ought to 
learn everything useful for becoming an efficient, pa- 
triotic member of society— those things alone which 
are useful. This is the minor premise of his didactic. 
Now, what conclusions can he draw from these two 
premises? How a child could be built up to the re- 
quirements of adult life without acting against his 
child nature, how he could be taught everything neces- 
sary to make a useful citizen without restraining his 
playful instincts, this was the problem he tried to 
solve in his philanthropic institute. The invention of 
many devices and schemes — all manner of educational 
machinery was the result. And though he often car- 
ried things too far and left several trivial contriv- 
ances which have made him a laughing-stock of con- 
temporary and subsequent critics, yet his historic 
merit as an ingenious inventor of many useful and 
commendable methods, systems, and plans is certainly 
undeniable. Moreover, by this ingenuity he exempli- 
fied how Lockean and Rousseauean ideals could be 



98 MODERN EDUCATORS 

made practicable, and how they could be introduced 
systematically into group education. With all his 
shortcomings he is entitled to be numbered among the 
most influential educational reformers and the great 
promoters of human weal. 



Immanuel Kant 

(1724-1804) 

If Basedow was the first great apostle of '' the 
nature evangelism of education " in the practical 
world, Rousseau finds in Kant '' his most illustrious 
disciple ' ' among scholars. Kant was not only greatly 
influenced by Rousseau in his educational ideas, but 
even in his conceptions of morality, religion, and 
anthropology. Kant also put himself among the con- 
spicuous thinkers of the age, like Goethe, Mendels- 
sohn, Lavater, as an ardent admirer and indorser of 
Basedow's Philanthropiuyn, which he deemed an ex- 
cellent experiment, opening a new way to the progress 
of educational art. But as Basedow had already 
modified Rousseau's naturalistic pedagogy, so our 
Scotch-German philosopher, whose life was perfectly 
regulated by reason, also departed widely from the 
French Romanticist. Nay, the two are opposite in 
many respects. The rationalistic element is so promi- 
nently developed in Kant's pedagogy that the Rous- 
seauean characteristics are almost effaced. Kant 



BASEDOW AND KANT 99 

learned much from Rousseau, but he was not, after 
all, his disciple in its true sense. 

The founder of that gigantic system, which is said 
to have determined the general course of philosophic 
thought of the nineteenth century, has not left us 
any systematic theory of education. We have only 
a glimpse of his educational views in his ^' Lecture 
Notes on Pedagogy," which were collected and 
arranged by one of his students, Theodor Rink. The 
grand conception of humanity, the large view of 
education was worthy of this father of German ideal- 
istic philosophy, but he does not always soar in the 
world of these great ideas; he condescends to come 
down to the world of actuality and discuss the 
details of educational practice in a Lockean manner. 
His lectures exhibit a mixture of the two tendencies: 
English Empiricism on the one hand and German 
Idealism on the other, and these tendencies, we find, 
also characterize his whole system of philosophy. Ex- 
altation of reason, of inner freedom, and of moral 
dignity run through whole pages of his lecture notes, 
as in all his critical writings. 

Education, Kant conceives as the humanization of 
mankind, through the coeffort of all members of 
society. " Man is the only creature that must be 
educated " (1: p. 101), because there is in him im- 
mense possibility which is not yet developed, and a 
grand destiny for him, which is not yet attained. 
Of the universal good and the perfection of human- 
ity, which is to be the destiny of man, we have not 



100 MODERN EDUCATORS 

yet reached a full and clear conception. Hence, edu- 
cation is the greatest and yet the hardest problem to 
which man can devote himself. ' ' No individual man, 
no matter what degree of culture may be reached by 
his pupils, can insure their attaining their destiny. 
To succeed in this, not the work of a few individuals 
only is necessary, but that of the whole human race ' * 
(2: p. 10) ; because man lives in society, and on so- 
ciety, too; and any individual would never be able 
to realize a perfect manhood unless society or the 
race became perfect. Education must be, thus, the 
cosmopolitan process, in order to fulfill its aim. Then 
consider education as an art. " What a vast culture 
and experience does not this conception presup- 
pose! " It can only become perfect through the 
practice of many generations, and advance by slow 
degrees, for '' insight depends on education, and 
education in its turn depends on insight " (2: pp. 
11-12). '' Our only hope is that each generation, 
provided with the knowledge of the foregoing one, is 
able, more and more, to bring about an education 
which shall develop man's natural gifts in their due 
proportion and relation to their end, and thus ad- 
vance the whole human race toward its destiny " (2: 
pp. 10-11). 

With this grand aim and task in view, education 
should not be left to the home nor to rulers. For 
'' parents usually educate their children merely in 
such a manner that, however bad the world may be, 
they may adapt themselves to its present condi- 



BASEDOW AND KANT 101 

tions/' or *' make their way in the world," and 
" sovereigns look npon their subjects merely as tools 
for their own purposes/' neither have they the uni- 
versal good so much in view as the well-being of 
the state; while the child should be educated not 
according to the present, but for the better future 
state of the human race — i. e., the ideal of humanity 
and its destiny (2: pp. 14-15). The rulers may help 
or lighten the task of education w^ith influence or 
money; but the practice of education ought to de- 
pend entirely upon the judgment of the most enlight- 
ened experts, who best represent the highest attain- 
ment of the age. 

Education consists in care, discipline, and culture, 
including instruction. The necessity of care arises 
from the insufficiency of man's instincts for his self- 
preservation; the necessity of the discipline and in- 
struction arises from man's capability to rise above 
his instincts. The chief function of care is the pre- 
vention of the harmful uses by children of their natu- 
ral powers; its nature should be largely negative on 
the part of educators. '' We have not to add any- 
thing to the provision of Nature, but merely to see 
that such provision is duly carried out. If any addi- 
tion to this is necessary on our part, it must be the 
process of hardening the child " (2: p. 39). All 
artificial contrivances are more harmful than bene- 
ficial for his healthy growth. Therefore keep his 
freedom and only prevent his forming effeminate 
habits. 



102 MODERN EDUCATORS 

By discipline '' we must understand that influence 
which is always restraining our animal nature from 
getting the better of our manhood, either in the indi- 
vidual as such, or in man as a member of society. Dis- 
cipline, then, is merely restraining unruliness " (2: p. 
18). Reason, not instinct, determines good conduct. 
But, since man comes into the world with undevel- 
oped reason '' in the first period of childhood, the 
child must learn submissive and positive obedience ** 
(2: p. 26). '' The love of freedom is naturally so 
strong in man that when once he has grown accus- 
tomed to freedom, he will sacrifice everything for 
its sake. For this very reason discipline must be 
brought into play very early; for when this has not 
been done it is difficult to alter character later in 
life '' (2: p. 4). Neglect of culture can be reme- 
died later in life, but neglect or mistake in discipline 
never. 

Kant's view on care and discipline, in its general 
character and details, very much reminds us of that 
of Locke. Kant is peculiarly empirical here in his 
procedure, and his protest against playing with and 
flattering the child, against indiscriminate punish- 
ment, his plea for the freedom of children's bodily 
activities, for early inculcation of self-restraint and 
obedience, for gaining the child's confidence and re- 
spect, his opinion in regard to manners, and chil- 
dren's crying, his advocation of the hardening process, 
all seem to be the repetitions of Locke in a modified 
language. In regard to habit formation, the two 



BASEDOW AND KANT 103 

writers seem to differ from each other, for Kant 
repeatedly opposes the formation or fostering of any 
habits in children. He says : ' ' The more habits a man 
allows himself to form, the less free and independent 
he becomes; . . . for whatever he has been accus- 
tomed to early in life always retains a certain attrac- 
tion for him in after-life '^ (2: p. 45). But if we 
read his lines a little more carefully we find this oppo- 
sition more apparent than real. One emphasizes the 
establishing of good habits while the other lays stress 
on the prevention of the formation of harmful habits. 
Whether Kant ever read Locke's " Thoughts on 
Education," and was thus influenced by him or not, 
I am unable to ascertain. This great similarity may 
come from their common experience in tutorship. 
Or we might attribute it largely to the influence he 
received from Rousseau and Basedow, and not 
directly to that of Locke. 

Care and discipline were in Kant's view essentially 
negative functions. The positive side of education he 
calls culture. It includes the physical, mental, and 
moral training. It is the building up or the unfold- 
ing of naturally endowed faculties of man by their 
exercise. Instruction is sometimes necessary, but it 
is only as an aid to the self-activity of the child. 
Children should be provided with ample opportu- 
nities for such exercise. 

What should be observed in physical culture relates 
either to the exercise of voluntary movements or of 
the organs of sense. As to the motor training, tlie 



104 MODERN EDUCATORS 

first condition is that '' the child sliould always help 
liimself " (2: p. 60). Strength and skill, quickness 
and self-reliance are thus developed. He recognizes 
a coordinate relation between the sense and muscle. 
Touching upon the psychology and pedagogy of vari- 
ous outdoor games common among children, he recom- 
mends those games as the best which " unite the de- 
velopment of skill with the exercise of the senses." 
Moreover, these games entered upon by the children 
serve them as an unconscious training for self-denial, 
hardship, privations, and the habit of constant occu- 
pation, and, besides, have a beneficial bearing on 
their social life. ' ' A lively boy will sooner become a 
good man than a conceited and priggish lad " (2: p. 
64). He also drops a line on the task of gymnastics, 
saying that since they are merely intended to direct 
Nature, we must not aim at artificial grace nor the 
perfection of performance. Thus, Kant not only 
shows his broad pedagogical view in advocating 
children's games for the culture of the senses and 
muscles, but anticipates one of the great discov- 
eries of modern psychology— the mentality of the 
muscles. 

In mental culture we can distinguish two kinds: 
one '' free," the other '' scholastic." By free cul- 
ture children's natural learning by their spontaneous 
activities is meant ; it is, so to speak, a play, a pastime, 
or an occupation in leisure. It goes on all the time, 
without our interference ; our function is simply to 
observe and guide it properly. Scholastic culture, on 



BASEDOW AND KANT 105 

the other hand, constitutes work, business, or an occu- 
pation by compulsion. " In ivoy^k, the occupation is 
not pleasant in itself, but it is undertaken for the 
sake of the end in view. ... It is of great importance 
that children should learn to work. Man is the only 
animal who is obliged to work. lie must go through 
a long apprenticeship before he can enjoy anything 
for his own sustenance " (2: pp. 68-69). And it is 
in man's nature that he wants occupation, even 
though it involves a certain amount of restraint. 
Therefore, Kant disagrees with Basedow's view 
' ' that children should be allowed to learn everything, 
as it were, in play." Play and work should go to- 
gether, and the school is intended for the cultivation 
of the work-interest and work-habit. 

The principal rule of mental culture is that " no 
mental faculty is to be cultivated by itself, but al- 
ways in relation to others," inferior faculties only 
with a view to the superior (2 : p. 70-71). The supe- 
rior mental faculties are, according to Kant, under- 
standing, judgment, and reason. By understanding, 
he means the knowledge of the general; by judg- 
ment, the application of the general to the par- 
ticular; by reason, the power of understanding the 
connection between the general and the particular. 
Memory and imagination as lower faculties should 
only serve these higher ones. Culture includes in- 
struction and teaching, but its chief aim should be 
not to impart knowledge, but to train general and 

particular faculties. The various subjects of the cur- 
8 



100 MODERN EDUCATORS 

riculum are to be simply means for mental gymnas- 
tics, but not the ends in themselves. '' It is culture 
Avhich brings out ability. Ability is the possession of 
a faculty which is capable of being adapted to vari- 
ous ends '' (2: p. 19). 

To mental culture the inculcation of prudence 
and civility should be added, for by this man is made 
fit to live in harmony with society at large. But 
" the moralization of humanity " is the highest aim 
of education. According to Kant, " We live in the 
epoch of disciplining, culturing, and civilizing, but 
we are still a long w^ay off from the epoch of moral- 
izing '' (1: p. 124). Discipline is negative; it is the 
prevention of evil tendencies and of defective growth. 
Moral culture is positive ; it is the inculcation of prin- 
ciples, the shaping of the manner of thinking. It is 
not mere formation of good manners or habits, but 
the establishment of character. 

Character consists in firmness of purpose and the 
power to realize it, persistency in the choice of one 
aim or object, and the renunciation of hindering 
desires and inclinations. Character is the result of 
such consistency in the exercise of inner freedom of 
will. Sudden conversion cannot transform a man^s 
personality from a vicious to a virtuous one, nor 
can any artificial, external means, such as mortifica- 
tions, fastings, pilgrimages, and the like. A man 
who acts without settled principles, with no uniform- 
ity, has no character. A man may have a good heart 
and no character, because he is dependent upon im- 



BASEDOW AND KANT 107 

pulses, and does not act according to maxims. Firm- 
ness and unity of principles are essential to charac- 
ter. So, lie says: ^' First form character, then a good 
character. ' ' 

A good character consists in the readiness to act 
according to moral principles, which the inner rea- 
son gives us as necessary and universal laws. The 
youth, therefore, must be taught to honor reason, 
and be allowed to exercise his inner freedom of 
personality. But in the case of younger children 
things are different. Reason is not yet developed in 
them, so they must first begin by following the exter- 
nal reason exercised for them — namely, they must be 
accustomed to give prompt obedience to the objective 
laws assigned by parents or schools. And although 
willing obedience is desirable and important, even 
" absolute '^ obedience is necessary to prepare the 
child " for the fulfilment of laws that he will have 
to obey later, as a citizen, even though he may not 
like them " (2: p. 86). Of course, it goes without 
saying, that these laws assigned by teachers or parents 
should always represent the universal laws, not their 
caprice or abitrary will. Kant is not so rigorous in 
regard to the moral education of children as he is 
in his moral metaphysics. He admits a place for 
*' inclination," and permits use to be made of chil- 
dren's instinct of fear. Yet he still makes a plea 
for the inculcation of the sense of duty, saying: 
*' Even though a child should not be able to see the 
reason of a duty, it is nevertheless better that certain 



108 MODERN EDUCATORS 

things should be prescribed to him in this way; for, 
after all, a child will always be able to see that he 
has certain duties as a child, while it will be more 
difficult for him to see that he has certain duties as 
a human being " (2: p. 87). The duties they have 
to perform must be placed, as far as possible, by 
examples and rules. 

According to Kant, the child's duty toward him- 
self consists in " being conscious that man possesses 
a certain dignity, which ennobles him above all other 
creatures," and in ''so acting as not to violate in 
his own person this dignity of mankind " (2 : p. 101). 
Uncleanness, lying, and the like should be most 
effectively taught as unbecoming to mankind and 
degrading to oneself, and at the critical period of 
adolescence, the idea of dignity of man can alone 
suffice to keep young men in bound. The child's 
duty toward others consists in the recognition of the 
dignity of mankind in the personality of others— 
namely, in justice. " A child should learn early to 
reverence and respect the rights of others, and we 
must be careful to see that his reverence is realized in 
his actions" (2: p. 102). Generosity is a virtue 
beyond the child's comprehension and power. As to 
benevolence, it is w^ell to arouse the sympathies of 
children, " not so much to feel for the sorrows of 
others as to a sense of their duty to help them " ( 2 : 
p. 104). Children ought to be prevented from con- 
tracting a habit of sentimental, maudlin, sympathy, 
which is really nothing else than the delicacy of sen- 



BASEDOAV AND KANT 109 

sitiveness, and is ''an evil, consisting as it does 
merely in lamenting over a thing " (2: p. 97). 

We must avoid exciting emulation, envy, or pride 
in a child by comparing his work with that of others. 
He ought only to compare himself with the con- 
ceptions of reason, or with the standard of moral 
perfection. Yet, on the other hand, frankness and 
unassuming confidence is a desirable virtue to be cul- 
tivated, which will ^' enable him to exhibit his talent 
in a becoming manner.'* 

Kant recommends as a means of cultivating chil- 
dren's moral ideas the use of a catechism, which 
*' should contain, in popular form, every-day ques- 
tions of right and wrong." For youth, the Socratic 
method is recommended as cultivating best the moral 
as well as logical reason. 

Early adolescence receives special consideration 
from him. He saw, with Rousseau, a peculiar educa- 
tional need of the period. 

'' Nature has spread a certain veil of secrecy over 
this subject, as if it were something unseemly for 
man, and merely an animal need in man. She has, 
however, sought to unite it, as far as possible, with 
every kind of morality " (2: p. 115). 

Sex-consciousness is the natural result of physio- 
logical growth. " Thus it is impossible to keep the 
youth in ignorance and the innocence which belongs 
to ignorance. By silence, the evil is but increased. 
"We must speak openly, clearly, and definitely with the 



110 MODERN EDUCATORS 

youth. We must allow that it is a delicate point, for 
we cannot look upon it as a subject for open conver- 
sation; but if we enter with sympathy into his im- 
pulses all will go well " (2: p. 116). We must guard 
the youth from the unnatural vices common among 
them and also from too early marriage. We must 
cultivate in them a proper respect for the other sex, 
and the true conception of a happy marriage. 

At this time the youth begins to be conscious of 
the distinction of rank and the inequality of men. 
* ' As a child he must not be allowed to notice this. ' ' 
As a youth, '' the consciousness of the equality of 
men together with their civil inequality may be 
taught him little by little '' (2: p. 119). Interest in 
others and in the progress of the world should now 
be encouraged. Kant's cosmopolitanism here flashes 
forth : 

'' Children should be made acquainted with this 
interest, so that it may give warmth to their hearts. 
They should learn to rejoice at the world's progress, 
although it may not be to their own advantage or to 
that of their country " (2: p. 121). 

Morality and religion were for Kant one and in- 
separal)le at bottom. Religion is nothing else than 
" the consciousness of all our duties as divine com- 
mands." Or it is '' the law in us in so far as it 
derives emphasis from a Lawgiver and Judge above 
us " (2: p. 111). Morality is the realization of 
duties from the consciousness of the inner law. The 



BASEDOW AND KANT 111 

relation of our actions to this inner law we call con- 
science. ' ' The reproaches of conscience will be with- 
out effect if it be not considered as the representative 
of God, who has His lofty seat above us, but who has 
also established a tribunal in us " (1: p. 215). On 
the other hand, if religion is not joined with a moral 
conscientiousness, it is of no effect. The rationalism 
of the eighteenth century did not recognize, or rather 
did not justify, the aesthetic side of religion. So Kant 
thought all religious acts without morality '' a super- 
stitious worship." Religious education is nothing 
more or less than the inculcation of the conscious- 
ness of the inner law and the Lawgiver. As to the 
common usages of worship, the more ignorant the 
child is the better. ' ' This much is certain, ' ' he says, 
* ' that, could it be brought about that children should 
never witness a single act of veneration to God, never 
even hear the name of God spoken, it might then be 
the right order of things to teach them first about 
ends and aims, and of what concerns mankind; to 
sharpen their judgment; to instruct them in the order 
and heauty of the icorks of Nature] then to add a 
wider knowledge of the structure of the universe ; and 
then only might be revealed to them for the first time 
the idea of a Supreme Being— a Lawgiver " (2: pp. 
109-110). But the actual condition of society neces- 
sitates our taking a sliort-cut and giving early in- 
struction to the child in the right ideas of religion. 

This is done, Kant believes, by pointing to God 
through moral consciousness within the child and 



112 MODERN EDUCATORS 

through the teleology in Nature without. Lead him 
to the understanding " that there is a law of duty 
which is not the same as ease, utility, or other con- 
sideration of the kind, but something universal, which 
is not governed by the caprice of men " (2: pp. 110- 
111), and he will come to be conscious of the presence 
of something in us, which is above us, above human 
creation. Show him *' how everything is disposed 
for the preservation of the species and their equi- 
librium, but at the same time with consideration in 
the long run for man, that he may attain happiness ' ' 
(2: p. Ill), and he will see the existence of the uni- 
versal law, which governs the world, yet is intimately 
related to himself. Kant thought these two as the 
only w^ays to reach the idea of God. One is the evi- 
dence of Practical Reason, the other the proof of the 
heart (Herzensheweis), But here again in religious 
education he shows his indulgence to children, for 
he says: 

' ' The idea of God might first be taught by analogy 
wdth that of a father under whose care we are placed, 
and in this way we may with advantage point out to 
the child the unity of men as represented by one 
family '' (2: p. 111). 

And tlie Christian pulpit has followed his advice. 
We can summarize his ideals of moral and religious 
education in his own words as follows: 

" Everything in education depends upon establish- 
ing correct principles, and leading children to un- 



BASEDOW AND KANT 113 

derstand and accept them. They must learn to sub- 
stitute the abhorrence of what is revolting and absurd, 
for hatred ; the fear of their conscience, for the fear 
of man and divine punishment; self-respect and in- 
ward dignity, for the opinions of men ; the inner 
value of actions, for words and mere impulses; un- 
derstanding, for feeling; and joyousness and piety 
with good humour, for a morose, timid, and gloomy 
devotion " (2: pp. 108-109). 



Ziegler, in his '' History of Pedagogy," epitomizes 
Kant's most important influence on the general trend 
of thought as the remodeling of our concept of the 
universe, the introduction of exact and critical think- 
ing, the exaltation of mathematical instruction, the 
substitution of morality of conscience for the moral- 
ity of eudemonism or prudence, the last-mentioned 
being probably the greatest and most lasting one. 
Ziegler tells us further that " the categorical impera- 
tive " has since become ^' the steel and iron in our 
blood '' (18 : p. 282), and that the German victory in 
the war for independence owes its debt above all others 
to Kant and Fichte. As to his position in the history 
of pedagogy itself, we may say, with Dr. Ernst 
Temming, that " the German Rationalistic Pedagogy 
{Aufklarungspddagogik) found in Kant both its 
founder and undaunted representative " (17: p. 4). 
Like Locke in England and Rousseau in France, he, 
with Basedow in Germany, can be said to have firmly 
established education on the human basis, making 
moral culture independent of positive Christianity, 



114 MODERN EDUCATORS 

and religion subordinate to education. Moreover, by 
proclaiming from the honored chair of Konigsberg 
University his grand concept of the education of hu- 
manity, he gave to the contemporary and subsequent 
generations of scholars a stimulus to take up peda- 
gogy as a work worthy of philosophers. 

REFERENCES 

1. BucHNER, Edward Franklin. The Educational Theory 

of Immanuel Kant. (Translation of ''Ueber Pada- 
gogik" and fragmental remarks on education by 
Kant.) Lippincott, Philadelphia and London, 1904. 
309 pages. 

2. Churton, Annette. Kant on Education. (Transla- 

tion of "Ueber Padagogik.") Kegan Paul, Trench, 
Triibner & Co., London, 1899. 121 pages. 

3. Duproix, Paul. Kant et Fichte et le probleme de 

Peducation. Second edition. Alcan, Paris, 1897. 
260 pages. 

4. Garbovicianu, Petru. Die Didaktik Basedow's im 

Vergleiche zur Didaktik des Comenius. Bucarest, 
Leipzig, 1887. 82 pages. 

5. Goring, Hugo. Ausgewahlte Schriften, mit Basedow's 

Biographic. Beyer, Langensalza, 1880. 519 pages. 

6. Heman, Friedrich. Geschichte der neueren Padagogik. 

Zickfeldt, Osterwicck, 1904. 436 pages. 

7. Lancj, Ossian H. Basedow: His Educational Work and 

Principles. Kellogg, New York, 1891. 29 pages. 

8. Monroe, Paul. A Text-book in the History of p]duca- 

tion. Macmillan & Co., New York and London, 
1905. 772 pages. 



BASEDOW AND KANT 115 

9. PiNLOCHE, Joachim Auguste. La Reforme de Teduca- 
tion en Allemagne au Dixhuitieme Siecle, Basedow 
et le Philanthropinisme. Colin, Paris, 1889. 397 
pages. 

10. Quick, Robert Hebert. Essays on Educational Re- 

formers. Appleton, New York, 1890. 560 pages. 
The same (International Education Series), 1903. 
568 pages. 

11. Raumer, Karl von. Geschichte der Pa'dagogik vom 

Wiederaufbliihen klassischer Studien bis auf unsere 
Zeit. 5 vols. Bertelsmann, Gutersloh, 1882-1897. 

12. Rein, Georg Wilhelm, editor. Encyklopadisches 

Handbuch der Padagogik. 8 vols. Beyer, Langen- 
salza, 1895-1906. Vol. VI. 

13. Scherer, Heinrich. Die Padagogik in ihrer Entwick- 

lung im Zusammenhange mit dem Kultur- und 
Geistesleben und ihrem Einfluss auf die Gestaltung 
des Erziehungs- und Bildungswesens. Vol. I. Die 
Padagogik vor Pestalozzi. Brandstetter, Leipzig, 
1897. 581 pages. 

14. ScHMiD, Karl Adolf, editor. Geschichte der Erziehung 

vom Anfang an bis auf unsere Zeit. 5 vols. Cotta, 
Stuttgart, 1884-1902. Vols. IV and V. 

15. Spielmann, C. Christian. Die Meister der Padagogik 

nach ihren Leben, ihren Werken und ihrer Bedeu- 
tung. Heufer, Neuwied, 1904-1905. 365 pages. 
Part X. 

16. Strijmpell, Ludwig H. Die Padagogik Kant's und 

Fichte's. Padagogischen Abhandlungen. Part II. 
Diechert, Leipzig, 1894. 

17. Temming, Ernst. Beitrag zur Darstellung und Kritik 

der moralischen Bildungslehre Kant's. Vieweg, 
Braunschweig, 1892. 55 pages. 

18. Ziegler, Theobald. Geschichte der Padagogik mit 

besonderer Rucksicht auf das hohere Unterrichts- 
wesen. Beck, Miinchen, 1895. 361 pages. 



CHAPTER VI 

HEINRICH PESTALOZZI 

(1746-1826) 

It was on January 14, 1789, in the desolate town 
of Stanz, '' alone, destitute of all tools of teaching, 
alone!— superintendent, bursar, steward, and even 
maidservant, in a half-ruined house— surrounded by 
ignorance, disease, and unwonted things of all kinds," 
that a fantastic Swiss began his career of " school- 
master." He had in his charge a group of orphan 
children, which ' ' increased by degrees to eighty ; all 
of different ages, some of good origin, others from 
the ranks of beggary, and all, with a few exceptions, 
wholly ignorant " (13: p. 186). As his faithful dis- 
ciple Kriisi tells us, " in the matter of ordinary ac- 
quirements and methods of teaching he was inferior 
to any good village dominie " (13: p. 188, footnote). 
Without steadiness, without patience, without order, 
without art of speech, without clearness of thought, 
all that he possessed was the burning, self-forgetting 
enthusiasm of a loving heart, *' die Yaterhraft 
meines Ilerzens.''^ " What a task," he says, '' im- 
agine it; to elevate these children. What a task! " 

116 



HEINRICH PESTALOZZI 117 

But he " attempted it, and stood in their midst, ut- 
tered various sounds and made them imitate them." 
Lo! what was the response that came to this seem- 
ingly nonsensical teaching? " Whoever saw it was 
struck with the effect," he writes later. " Truly it 
was a meteor that flashes through the air and van- 
ishes. No one understood its nature. I did not 
understand it myself. It was the result of a simple 
psychological idea which had been revealed to inward 
consciousness, but which I myself was far from clearly 
understanding " (13: p. 186). Is not this the begin- 
ning whereby ' ' the laughing stock of the passer-by, ' ' 
' ' a straw not fit to sustain a cat, ' ' became the corner- 
stone of modern elementary education ? If one looks 
for an example in which the singleness of a noble 
purpose and the purity of a loving zeal alone could 
accomplish a great thing in the world, he will prob- 
ably find no better one than that of Pestalozzi. In- 
deed, there is no more interesting and inspiring, 
though pathetic life, than that of this " greatest 
pedagogical genius who has ever lived," as Ziegler 
calls him. It is a living drama, in which a new spirit 
of the age, or rather a new prophecy, struggles to 
realize itself, through the fetters of misunderstanding, 
the opposition of tradition, and the blows of adverse 
fate. 

Pestalozzi was, before all, a social reformer. His 
pedagogy was a part of his social philosophy, or 
rather the last fruit of his fervent efforts for the 
betterment of his people and country. Having been 



118 MODERN EDUCATORS 

l)roiight up in poverty and among the poor, he was 
well acquainted with the actual life of the country 
l)eople. The inhorn tenderness of his heart, ennobled 
by the influence of both his devout mother and uncle, 
deepened by the constant appeal of the helplessness 
about him, could not but be touched by the sight of 
the mass of humanity which was without right, with- 
out comfort and even without necessities of life. 
" Dear people, I will help you up! " was the utter- 
ance that came already from the lips of his boyhood. 
And he confesses in his later age: " Ever since my 
youthful days, the course of my feelings, rolled on 
like a mighty stream, was directed to this one point ; 
namely, to stop the sources of that misery in which I 
saw the people around me immersed " (1: p. 671). 

First, his childhood fancy was attracted by the 
good example of his uncle, and he wanted to follow 
his footsteps as a village pastor. While a student of 
theology at Ziirich, he came under the influence of 
Rousseau, and was animated by an intense reforma- 
tory spirit. His immediate plan was to become a 
defender of the people's rights as a lawyer. Then, 
finding his unfitness for the profession, he turned 
to agriculture, through which he intended to realize 
his philanthropic educational dream, according to 
Rousseauean principles. An orphanage which he es- 
tablished on his farm having a mill connected with it, 
Paul Monroe thinks, was probably the first " indus- 
trial school for poor children." After having met 
with a succession of failures, ending in utter finan- 



HEINRICH PESTALOZZI 119 

cial ruin, he turned " schoolmaster," first at Stanz, 
then at Burgdorf, lastly at Yverdun. He organized 
an institute for female teacliers. He became the 
trainer of educators who came from different parts 
of Europe and America to learn his spirit and method. 
Yverdun became the Mecca of pedagogues. Mean- 
while he wrote extensively, not only on education, but 
on politics, finance, jurisprudence, prison systems 
and punishment, military affairs, industrial questions, 
and social problems, such as infanticide, home, and the 
church. But through all changes in his plans, cir- 
cumstances, and activities, his central purpose re- 
mained the same— namely, the elevation of humanity 
working from within and from below. The poor, the 
destitute, the weak were always the dearest objects 
to his heart. 

His pedagogy was by no means a studied one, like 
that of Comenius or Herbart. He is said to be the 
most unlettered of the great educational writers. 
But the true spirit and genius of the educator, which 
is more precious than everything else, was his pos- 
session. And with Pauline enthusiasm that '' I am 
cursed if I do not work for these little ones of our 
poor fellow-creatures," he simply threw himself 
single-heartedly into the task of their education. 
Thus his whole educational career was a series of 
experiments, and his pedagogy is its record. 

If Rousseau's plea was for the freedom of the 
'' natural man " from the yoke of the artificialities 
of existing society, Pestalozzi's was for the recogni- 



120 MODERN EDUCATORS 

tion of the divinity in the breast of even the hum- 
blest of humanity and its rescue from death. The 
worth of the poor and little was once proclaimed by 
the Founder of the religion of the universal brother- 
hood. But the gospel had been long forgotten until 
it was reproclaimed by the greatest lover of man- 
kind whom the world has ever seen since Jesus of 
Nazareth. He is called by Mager the " Kant of 
pedagogy and didactics," but I would rather name 
him " the Messiah of modern education." And if 
Comenius^s philosophy of education was the perfect 
embodiment of the biblical Christianity of the sev- 
enteenth century, Pestalozzi was the burnt offering 
which the new humanized Christianity of the nine- 
teenth century made at the altar of humanity. 

'' All the pure and beneficent powers of human- 
ity," writes Pestalozzi, " are neither the product of 
art nor the results of chance. They are really a 
natural possession of every man. Their development 
is a universal human need " (4: p. 122). Yet how 
this need has hitherto been unrecognized and neg- 
lected, especially for the lower strata of society! 
And this is the source of such a deplorable inequality 
and consequent instability in our social structure. 
The true remedy would come not through charity 
nor through revolution, but only through technical, 
intellectual, and moral elevation of the great neg- 
lected mass by education. This w^as not a mere the- 
ory or an ideal conception for him, but a working 
principle. See what confidence and hope he put into 



HEINRICH PESTALOZZI 121 

the divine possibility of destitute children, and with 
what love and reverence he protected their sanctity. 

'' Children, your good fortune is great. At a time 
when the great majority of children go on in neglect 
and abandonment, with only want for their teacher, 
and their passions for their guides; in days when 
so many, so innumerably many, better and more 
fortunate children, suffering under a combination of 
harshness, violence, and bad guidance, diverted from 
the paths of Nature, not educated, but trained only 
to a one-sided, empty show of knowledge and equally 
one-sided pretense and fashion of practical efficiency, 
and thus offered up to the world ; in such a time, you 
are not given over to abandonment and neglect ; . . . 
nor are the dubious impulses of passion used in your 
training. Among us, neither vanity nor fear, neither 
honor nor shame, neither reward nor punishment, as 
they are elsewhere almost universally used, pur- 
posely and as a part of the method, are used to show 
3^ou the path in which you are to go. The divine 
nature which is in you is counted holy in you. You 
are among us what the divine nature within you and 
wdthout you summon you to be. We oppose no vile 
force against your gifts or your tendencies; we con- 
strain them not, — we only develop them. AVe do not 
instil into you what is ours, what exists in us as cor- 
rupted by ourselves ; we develop in you what remains 
uncorrupted within yourselves. Among us, you are 
not under the misfortune of seeing your whole being, 
your whole humanity, subordinated, and thus sacri- 
ficed to the training of some single power, some 
single view of your nature. ... God, No! What 
I seek is to elevate human nature to its highest, its 
noblest; and this I seek to do by love. Only in the 
9 



122 MODERN EDUCATORS 

lioly power of love do I recognize the basis of the de- 
veloi)inent of my race to whatever of the divine and 
eternal lies within its nature '^ (1: p. 713). 

This quotation from his address delivered on New 
Year's day of 1809 gives us the essence of his philos- 
ophy of education. To bring about the natural, har- 
monious development of all the powers, faculties, and 
(puilities, which are potential in every human being, 
is the aim of education. The key to open up these 
treasures of human, therefore divine, nature is the 
most human, the most divine, power of love and de- 
votion. 

Now let us examine more closely and minutely 
the meaning contained in this fundamental concept 
of his, which, thus stated, seems nothing new or 
striking, but if truly understood and applied would 
cause an entire revolution even in the education of 
our present day. 

First, what does Pestalozzi understand by the 
" natural " development? '' There is an impulse in 
every capacity of human nature, which compels its 
development from lifeless inactivity into a devel- 
oped power " (1: p. 738). This impulse leads each 
one of our powers to a spontaneous activity or exer- 
cise, and Nature develops it by '' the single method 
of its own activity." This natural, organic unfolding 
of life, with its multiple activities, is necessarily har- 
monious when unhindered by human artifices or un- 
favorable environment. We must guard this natural 



HEINRICH PESTALOZZI 123 

harmony of human nature, upon which the peace and 
liappiness of our individual and social life rest. 

'' No one faculty in the human child must be 
treated with exclusive or indiscriminate attention, 
for their co-agency alone can ensure a successful de- 
velopment of the whole being." " Every one-sided 
development of our powers is untrue and unnatural; 
it is only apparent cultivation, . . . and not human 
culture itself " (1: pp. 736, 737). 

Pestalozzi is not only antagonistic to that kind of 
education which ' ' has an external, limited end of cul- 
ture, of morality, of social efficiency in view, and 
wants to fit the child to this," but he opposes that 
type of pedagogue who requires the child to conform 
to a plasterlike model of a perfected man. Each 
particular child is always the end, the object, the 
standard. 

" Whatever, therefore, man may attempt to do by 
his tuition, he can do no more than assist in the effort 
which the child makes for his own development. To 
do this so that the impressions made upon him may 
always be commensurate to the growth and charac- 
ter of the faculties already unfolded, and at the same 
time, in harmony with them, is the great secret of 
education. The knowledge to which the child is to 
be led by instruction must, therefore, necessarily be 
subjected to a certain order of succession, the begin- 
ning of which must be adapted to the first unfolding 
of his powers, and the progress kept exactly parallel 
to that of his development " (11: p. 611). 



124 MODERN EDUCATORS 

This method of leading or assisting the child along 
the course of his successive developmental stages in a 
natural, progressive order is what he terms ' ' psychol- 
ogizing education," and this was the central problem 
of his whole experimentation, so far as the individ- 
ual child was concerned. The discovery of his 
famous '' Method of Elementary Instruction " was 
the fruit of his lifelong endeavor toward this end, 
but he considered his achievement only as a begin- 
ning. 

Pestalozzi, in his advocacy of the natural, psycho- 
logical method, seems to be echoing the voice of one 
who said: " Return to Nature, to human nature, to 
child nature! " But he goes deeper than Rousseau 
in his insight into child nature. While Rousseau 
pictured the natural growth of the child in an imag- 
inary life, isolated from every human institution, 
Pestalozzi placed the child in his natural environ- 
ment—namely, in the home under the loving care of 
parents. In the eyes of both, the course of Nature 
was divine and inviolable. But while Rousseau 
sought Nature's work in the wilderness, Pestalozzi 
saw it in the home life. It is not physical nature, 
but a well-ordered home that can become the true 
cradle and workshop of human nature. Indeed, 
there has probably never been a thinker who empha- 
sized the divine significance of home and mother so 
strongly as did Pestalozzi. His method of elementary 
instruction came from the study of child life in the 
home, and was first intended for home education. 



HEINRICH PESTALOZZI 125 

He was never tired of repeating that '' a man's 
domestic relations are the first and most important 
of his nature " (4: p. 77). He earnestly endeavored 
to convince the world that '^ it is the domestic vir- 
tues which determine the happiness of a nation,'* 
and that *' the home is the true basis of the educa- 
tion of humanity." According to him, it is only to 
supplement the absence of proper home education 
that schools are needed ; home ought to have been the 
educational institution for children. So he speaks in 
*' Christopher and Alice " through the mouth of the 
good servant, Josiah : 

** It is well that there are schools; and God forbid 
that I should be ungrateful for any good that they 
have done to us. But with all this I think that he 
must be a fool who, having plenty at home, runs 
about begging ; and that is the very thing which our 
village folk do, by forgetting all the good lessons 
which they might teach their children at home, and 
instead thereof sending them every day to gather up 
the dry crumbs which are to be got in our miserable 
schools" (1: pp. 665-666). 

Again he says in his address on his seventy-third 
birthday : 

" The greatest evil of our time, and the greatest 
and almost insurmountable obstacle to the operation 
of any thorough means is this, that the fathers and 
mothers of our time have almost universally lost the 
consciousness that they can do anything— everything 
—for the education of their children. This great fall- 



126 MODERN EDUCATORS 

ing away from their faith, of fathers and mothers, is 
the universal source of the superficial character of our 
means of education. . . . Fathers and mothers must, 
above all, learn to feel vividly how great an advan- 
tage—as intrusted by God and their own conscience 
with the duty of educating their own children— they 
enjoy over any others to be employed as assistants 
therein. And, for like reasons, it is indispensable 
that there should be a general public recognition of 
the fact that a child who has lost father and mother 
is still a poor, unfortunate orphan, even though his 
guardian can employ the first among all masters of 
education in the world to teach him " (1: p. 716). 

Then, where lies the source of the peculiar educa- 
tive power of the home? We have seen before that 
the art of education consists in ministering an intel- 
ligent, loving help to the natural unfolding of the 
child's powers. But this term *' loving help " is 
really too weak, prosaic, and conventionalized to ex- 
press its deep meaning. It is more than mere kind- 
ness, mere effort of good will, or sentimental affec- 
tion that is meant. It is giving one's whole self, 
giving one 's essence over into another 's to be absorbed 
there, and to become a new power. To use Pesta- 
lozzi's own metaphor, it is like the sun whose light 
and warmth silently penetrate to the soil, and in 
Avhose light and warmth the plants grow, bud, and 
blossom, unconscious of its influence. This kind of 
loving help can the mother alone supply to her own 
children, by virtue of the natural endowment of a 
maternal heart, * * the most gentle and the most in- 



HEINRICH PESTALOZZI 127 

trepid power in the whole system of Nature " (1: 
p. 735). 

Love is understanding : a dutiful mother will easily 
** learn to distinguish and direct each faculty before 
it appears in a state of development sufficient to 
evidence its own existence *' (1: p. 736)— the prin- 
cipal qualification for an educator. Love is educa- 
tive in the etymological sense of the word: it brings 
out what there is in the child into self-expression. A 
loving mother is able " to open children's hearts, 
and their mouths, and to draw forth their under- 
standings, as it were, from the hindermost corner " 
(1: p. 667)— the true tact of education. Pestalozzi 
compares the method of the ordinary schoolmaster 
with what he believes to be the method of maternal 
instinct in the following words: 

" The teacher starts usually from objects, you 
from the child himself. The teacher connects his 
instruction with what he knows, in order to teach the 
child ; you know in the presence of your child noth- 
ing else than himself and connect everything with 
his instincts and impulses. The teacher has a form 
of instruction to which he subjects the child; you 
subject your course of instruction to the child and 
surrender it to him, when you teach, as you surren- 
der yourself to him. With the teacher, everything 
comes from the understanding, Avith you all gushes 
out from the fullness of heart. The child is childlike 
toward you, because you behave motherlike toward 
him ; the more you are motherlike, the more child- 
like he is " (16': x, p. 145). 



128 MODERN EDUCATORS 

Pestalozzi expresses his righteous indignation 
toward the schoolmaster's fondness for the everlast- 
ing disciplining, drilling, mechanism, which only 
thwart the natural free development of tender minds. 

^' The schoolmaster seems as if he were made on 
purpose to shut up children's mouths and hearts, and 
to bury their good understanding ever so deep under 
ground. That is the reason why healthy and cheerful 
cliildren, whose hearts are full of joy and gladness, 
hardly ever like school. Those that show best at 
school are the children of whining hypocrites, or of 
conceited parish officers; stupid dunces, who have no 
pleasure with other children; these are the bright 
ornaments of schoolrooms, who hold up their heads 
among the other children like the wooden king in 
the nine-pins among his eight fellows. But if there is 
a boy who has too much good sense to keep his eyes, 
for hours together, fixed upon a dozen letters which 
he hates ; or a merry girl, who, while the schoolmaster 
discourses of spiritual life, plays with her little hands 
all manner of temporal fun under the desk; the 
schoolmaster, in his wisdom, settles that these are 
goats who care not for their everlasting salvation '* 
(1: p. 667). 

Yet, a greater, nay the greatest thing that the 
maternal love, and it alone, can accomplish is to sow 
the living seed of moral sentiments, to lay the solid 
basis of character, in the soul of the child. He says : 

" The only sure foundation upon which we must 
build, for institutions, for popular education, national 
culture, and the elevation of the poor, is the parental 



I 



HEINRICH PESTALOZZI 129 

heart, which, by means of the innocence, truth, pow- 
er, and purity of its love kindles in the children the 
belief in love '' (1: p. 715). 

For " the child at his mother's breast is already 
receiving the first impressions of love and grati- 
tude "; and there is moral instruction in the morsel 
of bread he receives from his father's hand. Ac- 
cording to Pestalozzi, " morality is nothing but a 
result of the development in the child of these first 
sentiments of love and gratitude " (4: p. 92). 

Another advantage of the home is the education 
which children get from their participation in the 
domestic occupation of their parents. 

'' For this work is necessarily what the parents 
understand best, what most absorbs their attention, 
and what they are most competent to teach. But even 
if this were not so, work undertaken to supply real 
needs would be just as truly the surest foundation 
of a good education " (4: p. 92). 

Again : 

" To engage the attention of the child, to exercise 
his judgment, to open his heart to noble sentiments, 
is, I think, the chief end of education; and how can 
this end be reached so surely as by training the child 
as early as possible in the various daily duties of do- 
mestic life? " (4: p. 92). 

Industry in the factory or school does not provide 
the continuous and manifold changes of work, the 
motivation from the real needs of life which the child 



130 MODERN EDUCATORS 

shares with the rest of the family, the stimulus of 
parental love, and the impulsion from the child 's own 
filial feeling, which home occupation does. 

Moreover, home presents real human life in its 
closest relations to the child, so that he naturally and 
unconsciously learns its facts and laws. Human re- 
lations are again more natural, true, and perfect in 
the home than anywhere else; thus the child can de- 
velop his human qualities here better than anywhere 
else. Therefore, '' as a general rule, art and books 
would not replace it in any way. The best story, the 
most touching picture the child finds in a book, is but 
a sort of dream for him, something unreal, and in a 
sense untrue; whereas what takes place before his 
eyes, in his own house, is associated with a thousand 
similar occurrences, with all his own experience as 
well as that of his parents and neighbours, and brings 
him without fail to a true knowledge of men, and 
develops in him a thoroughly observant mind " (4: 
p. 93). 

Lastly, home is in itself a completed whole, a 
microcosmos of the larger social life, while school 
or the factory is not. Home is the only place where 
the child can live a real, organic life. And we can 
find a true unity and harmony, which is dynamic 
and progressive only in an organic life. Therefore, 
''it is only in the holiness of home that the equal 
development of all the human faculties can be 
directed, managed, and assured; and it is from this 
point that educational efforts must be conducted, if 



HEINRICH PESTALOZZI 131 

education, as a national affair, is to have a real ref- 
erence to the wants of the people, and is to cause, 
by its influence, the coinciding of external human 
knowledge, power, and motives with the internal, 
everlasting, divine essence of our nature" (1: p. 
715). 

This, then, is the war cry of Pestalozzian reform: 
the education of the child for the home, in the home, 
through the home, and by the home. The child should 
be educated to be a dutiful and efficient member of 
the family, or he cannot become a dutiful and efficient 
member of society. 

Social reform must begin with the reconstruction 
of the home life of the people. Not " go back to 
Nature ! ' ' but ' ' go back to the home ! ' ' Not to 
build a new society on the absolutely free, inde- 
pendent, natural yuan, but on the work-loving, man- 
loving, God-loving, unsophisticatedly developed, so- 
cial man, or rather home man. For Pestalozzi, the 
only hope for the elevation of all mankind was in 
the regeneration of the home and perfection of home 
education. His idea of elementary education started 
from this view. '' Leonard and Gertrude " was 
written as an appeal to parents, to awaken them to 
the sense of the most sacred duty intrusted to them 
and of the grandest privilege given to them. '' How 
Gertrude Taught Her Children ' ' was to be a guide to 
mothers for instructing their children at home. His 
method of elementary instruction was to provide the 
simplest and easiest way of teaching available to 



132 MODERN EDUCATORS 

every mother. Lastly, in the '' Swan Song " lie for- 
mulated the principles by which home education 
should follow or assist the course of natural develop- 
ment of the child. In this, one of his last writings, 
he says : * ' At first I desired nothing else, but merely 
sought to render the ordinary means of instruction 
for the people so simple as to permit of their being 
employed in every family ^^ (4: p. 375). But while 
he was experimenting, in the education of those desti- 
tute and neglected children, to whom he was a 
'' father '* rather than a master, the ardent necessity 
of school reform at large was impressed upon him. 

'' Everywhere the course pursued was in direct 
opposition to that of Nature, everywhere the flesh 
predominated over the spirit, and the divine element 
was ignored; everywhere selfishness and the passions 
were made the motives of actions, and everywhere 
mechanical habits took the place of intelligent spon- 
taneity '* (4: p. 377). 

The basic principle upon which he wanted every 
educator to work was: " Endeavour, first to broaden 
your children's sympathies, and, by satisfying their 
daily needs, to bring love and kindness into such un- 
ceasing contact with their impressions and activity, 
that these sentiments may be engrafted in their 
hearts; then try to give them such judgment and 
tact as will enable them to make a w^ise, sure, and 
abundant use of these virtues in the circle which 
surrounds them " (4: p. 157). This is, according to 



HEINRICH PESTALOZZI 133 

his insight, the principle of parental education un- 
consciously going on in the home, and the school must 
be a copy of the home in its spirit and method, if 
it is at all to have a real and vital influence upon the 
child. 

Pestalozzi traces in the *' Swan Song " how the 
seeds of love, of confidence, of gratitude, of brotherly 
feeling, of patience, of obedience, and of the sense of 
duty unfolds in the heart of the child, through the 
tender and discreet care of the mother, and by means 
of family intercourse. He also shows how, out of these 
instinctive domestic affections, religious sentiments 
are born in the human soul. ''It is life that edu- 
cates," and this is life's method of moral culture. 

' ' On the intellectual side, it is again life that edu- 
cates ; for life develops, in turn, the power of receiv- 
ing impressions, the power of speaking, and the power 
of thinking/' Let us see how these are developed. 
' ' The power of receiving impressions by observations 
and experience furnishes the child with ideas and 
sentiments " (4: p. 378). This power, which Pesta- 
lozzi calls *' Anshaimng/^ is the starting-point of all 
intellectual activities. ' ' These impressions excite and 
animate in the mind its inherent principle of self- 
development.'' Therefore, " with perception comes 
the necessity for expression, and naturally the first 
attempts of the child are imitative, but the greatest 
need is that of human speech," which is '' an exten- 
sion of the power thought " (1: p. 739). The desire 
and capacity for speech is parallel to the development 



134 MODERN EDUCATORS 

of vocal organs and acquirements of knowledge 
through perception. " The power to speak does not 
proceed from the knowledge of language, it is rather 
the knowledge of language which proceeds from the 
power to speak/' Language is a vital mental power 
only when it has grown out of the child's own life. 
But forcing the language from outside upon the child 
" neither develops the powers of the mind nor pro- 
duces anything but an empty verbiage '' (4: pp. 378- 
379). Nevertheless, " Art . . . can greatly relieve 
the tedium of Nature's methods in teaching the child 
to speak, and education must investigate the means, 
and present an orderly succession of exercises adapted 
to that end. ' ' For instance, ' ' the mother must allow 
the charms of seeing, hearing, feeling, and tasting to 
have full play in the child. These sense impressions 
will awaken the desire to give them expression, that 
is, to speak. The mother continually varies her tones, 
speaking now loudly, now softly, sometimes singing, 
and sometimes laughing, so as to awaken the desire 
to imitate. The sense of sight must also be enlisted 
by exhibiting different objects and associating the 
impressions with fitting words. Each object should 
be presented in the greatest possible variety of rela- 
tions and positions, and care should be taken that 
each impression, matured in the child's mind through 
perception, is properly expressed *' (1: pp. 739-740). 
In this way the vocal organs are to be trained, a good 
command of words is to be given, and the power of 
expressing related ideas to be cultivated. 



HEINRICH PESTALOZZI 135 

Now when a child 's sense impressions have resulted 
in clear and settled ideas, when he can express these 
ideas in speech, he feels the need of examining, sepa- 
rating, and comparing them; this is a pleasure to 
which life itself invites him, and in which he finds 
the surest aid for the development of his judgment 
and power of thinking." Education at all times has 
aimed to encourage, facilitate, and strengthen this 
development. Yet it has failed miserably, because 
" it has paid little heed to the laws of Nature and 
of life." Pestalozzi condemns the usual method of 
' ' putting before the child a mass of ready-made judg- 
ments that his memory alone has been able to grasp, 
and which, instead of strengthening his thought, have 
allowed it to wither in inactivity." He also makes 
light of logic, which, to his conception, is " a system, 
more subtle than clear, of the eternal rules which 
regulate human thought ; rules, however, which are but 
a closed book for the child who does not yet possess 
the power of thinking " (4: p. 379). What he him- 
self proposes as the best gymnastics for the child's 
thinking power is what he calls exercises in number 
and form. As singing is introduced for the training 
of the speech faculty, arithmetic, geometry, drawing, 
writing are introduced for the training of the power 
of thought. '' But," he says, " if the study of 
number and form is to have any real educational 
value, it must consist not in shortened, mechanical 
methods, but in a series of exercises so well graduated 
that the child may take pleasure. in the study, and 



136 MODERN EDUCATORS 

succeed in it; that his thinking powers may be 
always active; that his judgments may be really his 
own, and that all he does must be closely connected 
with his real life '' (4: pp. 379-380). Thus, to sum- 
marize, language (including sounds, words, connected 
ideas), number, and form are to be the three essen- 
tial means of intellectual culture, or the three funda- 
mental elements of mental upbuilding, and ' ' it is the 
business of education to present these elements to 
the child's mind in the simplest possible manner, and 
in psychological and progressive order.'' 

In regard to manual skill, again, ' ' it is in the con- 
ditions and needs of actual life, and in the heart of the 
family, that the child must first learn how to use and 
improve his powers " (4: p. 380). The work, when 
separated from life, is a mere mechanism. There- 
fore, '' the exercises intended to develop the indus- 
trial and artistic powers must also be determined by 
the general circumstances of the child's life " (4: p. 
380). The principle of elementary education applies 
to the manual powers as well as to the mental and 
moral: ** It encourages the child's activity from the 
very first; it leads him to produce results which are 
really his own, and it gives him at the same time both 
the power and the will to rise without slavishly copy- 
ing others" (4: p. 380). Further, for industrial 
skill *' to be completely useful, it must be the outcome 
of the harmonious development of heart, mind, and 
body " (4 : p. 374) . For, what is skill but '' the facile 
and artful expression of what is conceived in the 



HEINRICH PESTALOZZI 137 

mind ? ' ' And without perfection of heart, * ' the high- 
est development of intellect, art, or industry brings 
no rest, but leaves the man full of trouble, uneasi- 
ness, and discontent " (4: p. 375 j. Therefore, to 
bring about the subordination of the physical powers 
to the moral and intellectual powers is the essential 
work of education. This due subordination of the 
lower to the higher elements of human nature, in 
which the harmony of life consists, is naturally found 
in " a well-regulated and industrious family life/* 
So here, again, the school must learn from the home. 
Pestalozzi's exaltation of home education is cer- 
tainly a great rebellion against scholastic and aca- 
demic training. No less revolutionary is his advocacy 
of industrial education as the only real education for 
the mass of people. Hitherto, education was con- 
ceived from the standpoint of aristocracy, or purely 
from the abstract ideal of perfected man in a per- 
fected society. But now '' the fatherland must 
learn to educate her poor as the poor *' (16: xii, p. 
513). The child of poverty should not be educated 
to an unpractical and unhappy man who cannot fulfil 
the task or duty which his particular circumstances 
and position require of him. First, " he must learn 
to know, handle, and use those things on which his 
bread and his quiet will depend through life " (1 : p. 
666). To give the power to support himself and his 
family is the first remedy for the misery and slavery 
of the poor : ' ' He is without rights, because he has 

no gain, ' ' and ' ' the poor man is poor mostly because 
10 



138 MODERN EDUCATORS 

he is not trained to earn his wants " (16 : iii, p. 247). 
So the first school which he established at Neiihof 
was intended to be an industrial school, embracing 
agriculture, manufacture, and commerce. Tliis ended 
in financial ruin before his plan was fully executed, 
but he reflects in his later life upon this school as if 
it were a lost child, and says : ' ' It is true that, with 
all the experience of after life, I have found but little 
reason to modify the views I then entertained " (1: 
p. 671). 

Comenius and Locke both introduced manual work 
into their curriculum, but without intending that it 
should be of much practical use in later life. Neither 
did Basedow emphasize the vocational aspect. Locke, 
indeed, had an unrealized plan for establishing a 
** working school '^ for the poor. Still, it was to be 
nothing more than the combination of a common 
workshop and a day nursery. We owe to Pestalozzi 
the first definite conception of an industrial education 
and its noble philosophy. 

The first aim of an industrial education is of course 
vocational: the inculcation of skill in productive 
labor. But it is more than this : it is the mental and 
moral culture as well. Racially and individually, 
industrial labor is " the true and holy and eternal 
means of combining the whole range of our powers 
into one common power, the power of manhood. ' ' It 
compels our mind to ''an unbroken attention, care- 
fulness, and deliberateness — tlie fundamental educa- 
tional basis of all thinking "; it necessitates in us the 



HEINRICH PESTALOZZI 139 

belief in the truth and immutability of natural laws. 
So lie proclaims: " It is tlie essence of the true art 
of human education to transform various Avorks and 
branches of industry into the means of human cul- 
ture *^ (16: X, p. 357), and "' for the laboring man, 
the sufficient and efficient cultivation of his senses 
and limbs to the service of all of what constitutes the 
blessings of his life, is the stepladder, by which he 
is called to climb up to the right thinking that would 
make him happy in his positions and relations." 
This, then, is the other great Pestalozzian motto: 
Education through and for work. 

Of the tributes paid to the merits of Pestalozzi there 
is no end, and rightly so. Karl Schneider testifies 
that '' not only a new form was introduced by him 
into the school instruction of Germany, but that her 
people have come to look upon the work of education 
as a national affair is due to him and his disciples " 
(25 : p. 59) . But his influence extends far beyond his 
fatherland and his adopted country. And through all 
the civilized world '' the ideas which he set forth are 
now tlirough pain and struggle endeavoring to get 
themselves realized " (22: p. 58). If Comenius gave 
us the universal school in form, Pestalozzi put the 
soul into it. Locke was the pedagogue of the gentle- 
men, Basedow of the bourgeois. But Pestalozzi, as 
Harniseh well said, was '' a people's pedagogue, a 
people's prophet " (27: p. 42), and " with a higher 
light in the head and more warmth in the heart than 
the world was wont to have " proclaimed the educa- 



140 MODEKN EDUCATORS 

tion of the masses for the masses. Truly, as Fichte 
said, '' his love was so blessed to him that he found 
more than he sought " (26: p. 245). In trying to 
save the poor, neglected mass of his country he gave 
the world '' the only remedy for the entire body of 
humanity "—the spirit and principles of vitalized 
and vitalizing, of humanized and humanizing edu- 
cation. 

REFERENCES 

1. Barnard, Henry. Pestalozzi and His Educational 

System. Bardeen, Syracuse, N. Y., 1906. 751 
pages. 

2. BoARDMAN, J. H. Educational Ideas of Froebel and 

Pestalozzi. Second edition. Normal Press, London, 
190-. 76 pages. (Normal Tutorial Series.) 

3. CoMPAYRE, Jules Gabriel. History of Pedagogy. 

Translated, with an introduction, notes, and an index, 
by W. H. Payne. Heath & Co., Boston, 1903. 598 
pages. 

4. GuiMPS, Roger Baron de. Pestalozzi, His Life and 

Work. Translated by J. Russell. Appleton, New 
York, 1890. 438 pages. (International Education 
Series.) 

5. Heim, . Die soziale Anschauungen Pestalozzi 's. 

Agentur des Rauhen Hauses, Hamburg, 1896. 22 
pages. 

6. Heman, Friedrich. Geschichte der neueren Padagogik. 

Zickfeldt, Osterwieck, 1904. 436 pages. 

7. Herisson, F. Pestalozzi, Eleve de J. J. Rousseau. Dela- 

grave, Paris, 1886. 246 pages. 

8. HOFFMELSTER, HERMANN WiLHELM. Comcuius Und PcS- 

talozzi als Begrimder der \^olkschiile. Second edi- 
tion. Klinkhardt, Leipzig, 1896. 97 pages. 



HEINRICH PESTALOZZl 141 

9. Mann, T. Die soziale Grundlage von Pestalozzi's 
Padagogik. Beyer, Langensalza, 1896. 18 pages. 

10. Melchers, Karl. Comenius und Pestalozzi, ein ver- 

gleichende Betrachtung ihrer padagogischen Grund- 
ideen. Schmidt, Bremen, 1896. 47 pages. 

11. Monroe, Paul. A Text-book in the History of Educa- 

tion. Macmillan Co., London and New York, 1907. 
772 pages. 

12. Monroe, William Seymour. History of the Pestalozzian 

Movement in the United States. Bardeen, Syracuse, 
N. Y., 1907. 244 pages. 

13. MuNROE, James Phinney. The Educational Ideal: an 

Outhne of its Growth in Modern Times. Heath & 
Co., Boston, 1896. 262 pages. 

14. Natrop, Paul. Pestalozzi 's Ideen liber Arbeiterbildung 

und soziale Frage. Salzer, Heilbronn, 1894. 34 
pages. 

15. Herbart, Pestalozzi und die heutigen Aufgaben der 

Erziehungslehre. Frommann, Stuttgart, 1899. 151 
pages. 

16. Pestalozzi, Johann Heinrich. Samtliche Werke. 12 

vols. C. Seyffarth, Liegnitz, 1889-1902. 

17. Leonard and Gertrude. Translated and abridged 

by Eva Channing. Heath & Co., Boston, 1889. 181 
pages. 

18. Pinloche, Joachim Auguste. Pestalozzi and the Foun- 

dation of the Modern Elementary School. Scribner, 
New York, 1901. 306 pages. 

19. Quick, Robert Hebert. Essays on Educational Re- 

formers. Appleton, New York, 1890. 560 pages. 
Same. (International Education Series), 1903, 568 
pages. 

20. Raumer, Karl von. Geschichte der Padagogik vom 

Wiederaufbliihen klassischer Studien bis auf unsere 
Zeit. 5 vols. Bertelsmann, Giitersloh, 1882-1897. 



142 MODERN EDUCATORS 

21. Rein, Georg Wilhelm, editor. Encyklopadisches 

Handbuch dor Piidago^ik. 8 vols. Beyer, Langen- 
salza, 1895-190G. Vol. V. 

22. Reinhardt, a. J. Outline of the History of Education. 

Kellogg, New York, 1891. 77 pages. 

23. ScHERER, Heinrich. Die Padagogik in ihrer Entwick- 

lung im Zusammenhange mit dem Kultur und 
Geistesleben und ihrem Einfluss auf die Gestaltung 
des Erziehungs- und Bildungswesens. Vol. II. Die 
Padagogik als Wissenschaft von Pestalozzi bis zur 
Gegenwart. 3 parts. Brandstetter, Leipzig, 1897- 
1908. 

24. ScHMiD, Karl Adolf, editor. Geschichte der Erziehung 

vom Anfang an bis auf unsere Zeit. 5 vols. Cotta, 
Stuttgart, 1884-1902. Vol. IV, Part II. 

25. Schneider, Karl. Rousseau und Pestalozzi ; der 

Idealismus auf deutschen und auf franzosischen 
Boden. Fifth edition. Gartner, Berlin, 1895. 63 
pages. 

26. Seyffarth, L. W. J. H. Pestalozzi, nach seinem Leben 

und aus seinen Schriften dargestellt. Eighth edition. 
Siegismund, Leipzig, 1904. 254 pages. 

27. _ Pestalozzi, in seiner weltgeschichtlichen Bedeutung. 

C. Seyffarth; Liegnitz, 1896. 59 pages. 

28. Spielmann, C. Christian. Die Meister der Padagogik 

nach ihren Leben, ihren Werken und ihrer Bedeutung. 
Heufer, Neuwied, 1904-1905. 356 pages. Part V. 

29. Wiget, Theobald. Pestalozzi und Herbart. Bleyl, 

Dresden, 1891. 140 pages. 

30. ZiEGLER, Theobald. Geschichte der Padagogik mit 

besonderer Riicksicht auf das hohere Unterrichts- 
wesen. Beck, Miinchen, 1895. 361 pages. 



CHAPTER VII 

JOHANN GOTTLIEB FICHTE 

(1762-1814) 

FiCHTE considered himself the true interpreter and 
successor of the Konigsberg philosopher. This is by 
no means saying that he was the best expositor of the 
latter 's theories. The Kantian philosophy worked a 
total revolution in his conception of the universe 
and life; and it was his determination to interpret 
to the world that philosophy that inspired him to 
the career of a scholar. He received the Kantian 
philosophy, so to speak, into his soul, and when he 
put it forth it was transformed in turn into the cast 
of his own personality. Kant was essentially a man 
of intellect, of thought, while Fichte was a man of 
enthusiasm, of action. So, in Kant, reason forms 
the world out of the chaos of impressions; in Fichte, 
everything, objective as well as subjective, is the pro- 
gressive creation of the ego. If philosophy was in 
Kant the critical method of thought, it is in Fichte 
the setting forth of a grand conception of tlie world 
and life : it really became a preaching and prophecy. 
The transcendental idealism of Kant culminated with 

143 



144 MODERN EDUCATORS 

Fichte in a sort of religion, wliicli he proclaimed his 
whole life through with the fire of a devoted mission- 
ary and the force of a mighty army. . 

This vitalization of Kantian idealism through 
Fichte has also taken place in the field of education. 
The perfection, and, above all, the moralization of 
humanity, was in Kant a cosmopolitan ideal, which 
was to be realized step by step, generation by genera- 
tion, through a cosmopolitan process. It was through 
Fichte that this somewhat far-off and ethereal ideal 
was made an actual and immediate object of national 
aspiration for the German people. He was probably 
the first philosopher who gave us a broad and lofty 
conception of national education or the nationaliza- 
tion of education. 

This nationalization of education means the educa- 
tion of a nation by the nation. Each individual is 
to participate in the work and enjoy the benefit of 
education, by which Fichte understands the progress- 
ive perfection of humanity through the advancement 
and propagation of culture. The state is no longer to 
be merely a military, political, and economic institu- 
tion, but also a cultural one. To look after the cul- 
tural interests of the community should be its most 
important function. Fichte 's idea of national educa- 
tion is, therefore, very different from the old classical 
ideal of state education, which aimed eliiefly at mak- 
ing efficient and faithful citizens for its political and 
military prosperity. And Fichte believed, witli patri- 
otic faith, that the Germans were the only people 



JOHANN GOTTLIEB FICHTE 145 

in the world who were able to grasp and realize this 
grand ideal, and that through them alone could come 
the elevation and ennoblement of mankind. Yet, 
what was the actual condition of this chosen people? 
The German federation went to pieces under the 
iron heel of the mighty Napoleon; the last hope of 
the people fled with the capture of Jena; the final 
crash came with the peace of Tilsit, " the most dis- 
graceful and bitterest treaty Germany ever made." 
During this great national crisis the cosmopolitan 
Goethe and Hegel were quietly engaged in their writ- 
ings, and most of the scholars of the land were simply 
trembling before the invading force, w^hile the people 
w^ere weakly preparing to bear the yoke of slavery. 
Into this wilderness of general depression and humili- 
ation there came a voice which thundered upon the 
ears of all the citizens of Germany: 

' ' Conquered now we are ; yet, whether w^e are also 
going to be disgraced — yes, disgraced wdth right, 
whether we would or not, in addition to all other 
losses, even lose honor, this is still to be decided by 
ourselves. The fight with arms is over, but now 
comes, let us hope, the new fight of principles, of 
morals, of character " (3: j). 470). 

Thus our philosopher prophet calls forth in his 
famous ''Addresses to the German Nation," which 
flowed from his mouth with fiery eloquence, such as 
Germany had not heard since Luther. The great 
aim of his speech was to awaken the people and 



146 MODERN EDUCATORS 

strengthen them for this new war of the remaking of 
the whole nation, upon which the existence of Ger- 
many depended. Yet, with what a wonderful convic- 
tion and with what a poetic vision did he speak of his 
people's victory in this coming war. 

^' The morning twilight of the new world has al- 
ready dawned and gilded the top of the hill, and 
foreshadows the day which is to come " (3: p. 279) 

was the message he wanted to convey to the bruised 
and stricken land. Characterizing his speeches says 
Barnard : 

' * Never were a people called upon to arouse them- 
selves to a nobler enterprise, and never was such a 
summons pealed forth in tones of more manly and 
spirit-stirring energy " (1: p. 146). 

If Luther awakened Germany to a sense of the dig- 
nity of individuality, it was through Fichte that she 
came to the consciousness of her national dignity and 
mission. Awakened by Luther, she led Europe in the 
reformation of religion ; awakened by Fichte, she has 
come to lead the world in the advancement of culture 
and education. 

Let us now proceed to the examination of his ideal 
of '' new education," which alone, he thought, would 
save the country from degradation and ruin. Wlien 
we think of the particular circumstances of liis time 
and the fundamental cliaracteristics of his personal- 
ity, it is quite natural that the first aim of the new 



JOHANN GOTTLIEB FICHTE 147 

education was to make, above all, an independent ego, 
a self -active, self-determinate, creative personality, the 
master of himself and environment. He writes in his 
*' Aphorisms on Education ": 

^' To educate a man means to give him opportuni- 
ties to make himself the complete master and ruler 
of his whole faculties.— The question is not what he 
learns, but what he is. If one actually is a reasonable 
and self-active being in every respect he will always 
with facility make himself such, as under the circum- 
stances he should be " (4: p. 353). 

How can such a stable, unchangeable, personality 
be produced, which will always remain such, and can 
never be otherwise? Not by trusting to chance, but 
through a necessary law which works surely and 
infallibly. And what will this necessary law be? 
He answers: ^' Love, love of self -activity, love of the 
ideal world, love of universal moral law.'' Will de- 
termines action, and love determines will. Love is, 
therefore, the only unfailing motive of all life activ- 
ities. So, in order to produce a self -active being, the 
love of self-activity for its own sake must be culti- 
vated and established in the child. The initiative 
activity on the part of the pupil should be cherished 
and promoted by every possible means. This is the 
first and principal task of educational art. 

But we must always keep fresh the energy of this 
self-activity. How can this be done ? Not by a con- 
stant spur from outside, but only by its own never- 



148 MODERN EDUCATORS 

ceasing, orderly progression or its inner evolution. 
This progressive unfolding of self-activity is secured 
by the power of aspiration toward an ever-progressive 
ideal. This ideal cannot be given by others, but it 
should be the creation of the pupils' own will. There 
is, in everyone's breast, an instinct toward perfection 
or a love of the highest good. This instinct should 
be cultivated and strengthened in the child. When it 
is strong, it necessarily drives him to create in his 
mind a certain state of things which does not exist 
in actuality, but which is the prototype of reality. 
Here lies the everlasting fountain source for a new 
higher activity. And the child learns by his imme- 
diate experience the evolution of the spiritual activ- 
ity in him, the universal and necessary law, by means 
of which the actual state of things is eternally realized 
in the w^orld. This is a higher kind of knowledge than 
that of mere actuality or a dead record of the past. 
In fact, soaring into the vast regions of ideals is 
better beloved by the youth than memorizing mere 
names and dates. 

Even from the standpoint of mere acquisition, the 
awakening of self-activity is a more important thing 
than the imparting of knowledge. For learning is 
simply a mode of activity, and by establisliing the 
love of activity for its own sake in the mind of the 
child, we also establisli the love of learning for learn- 
ing's sake. This, and this alone, is the lifelong spring 
of all knowledge. By tlie self -active learning which 
comes from pure love, one learns more, and more 



JOHANN GOTTLIEB PICHTE 149 

securely than by being taught receptively. ^lechan- 
ical and passive learning destroys the very source of 
knowledge by killing the child's self-activity, and, 
moreover, by introducing alien motives for his activ- 
ity, implants the root of weakness and uncertainty of 
character. 

Fichte was a great admirer of Pestalozzi. He was 
captivated by the educational zeal and the pedagogic 
principles of the Swiss reformer, and recommended 
them as the true foundation upon which the new edu- 
cation of the German nation should be laid. Kant 
indorsed Basedow's experimental efforts in the phil- 
anthropic institute; but Fichte preached the gospel 
of the Swiss '^ fanatic." Historians are inclined to 
count this as the most important merit of Fichte in 
the history of education. For it contributed greatly 
to the influx of the Pestalozzian tide into Germany, 
especially into Prussia, and thus led to the most flour- 
ishing age of pedagogical writers, and to inscribing 
the motto of universal education on the national flag 
of the country. We might say that it is due largely 
to Fichte that the great Swiss educator has become 
an adopted son of Prussia, and what he intended for 
the elevation of the Helvetian poor has become the 
inspiration of elementary education for all the nations 
on the globe. 

But in a few points Fichte did not agree with Pes- 
talozzi. One is in regard to the position of reading 
and writing in the education of the masses: Pesta- 
lozzi cherished, so thought Fichte, too innocent a 



150 MODERN EDUCATORS 

belief in the tradition of ages, in that he set up these 
two as though they were the end and goal of instruc- 
tion, when, in fact, they have hitherto been the very 
instruments to enwrap men in the mist and the 
shadow of learned ignorance, and to make them over- 
intelligent. They take men away from the immediate 
perception to the mere symbol, from the concentration 
of mind to its diffusion. Instruction in letters and 
words, therefore, is not only unessential for the edu- 
cation of the people at large, but even harmful. 

In the second place, Fichte did not quite agree 
with Pestalozzi in the method of sense education. 
The Pestalozzian idea of the A. B. C. of perception 
is a praiseworthy one, but it cannot be attained 
through words. Fichte asks: '' How can a child 
obtain the knowledge of his body without having first 
learned to use it? " According to Fichte 's theory 
of knowledge, self-activity precedes every content of 
consciousness, and the vague feeling or sensation of 
this primordial, subjective activity is the first begin- 
ning of our knowledge. Consequently, " the true 
foundation of instruction and knowledge must be, to 
use the Pestalozzian expression, the A. B. C. of sen- 
sation " (3 : p. 407). The child is to learn to clearly 
perceive and distinguish the various sensations which 
he experiences, and to express them, each in distinc- 
tion from others. Impressions at first produce a chaos 
in the infant, but by learning to discriminate them he 
comes to perceive tlie objects impressed upon him : 
thus from the A. B. C. of sensation he is led to the 



I 



JOHANN GOTTLIEB FICHTE 151 

A. B. C. of perception. Language should not be 
imparted from outside as a mere symbol, but should 
develop in the child as the progressively differentiat- 
ing expression of his inner self or subjective experi- 
ence. In this way knowledge and speech become liv- 
ing things and parts of the child's own being. 

Together with these there must be training in the 
A. B. C. of bodily faculty— i. e., motor activity. 
Pestalozzi calls attention to this training, but the plan 
for it has not yet been fundamentally and systemat- 
ically worked out. " To do this, it needs a man who 
is equally well acquainted with the anatomy of the 
human body and scientific mechanics, combining with 
these a high degree of philosophical insight '^ (3: p. 
410). By such a man alone, the complete method, not 
only of maintaining, but also of strengthening and 
elevating health, the beauty of body, and the vitality 
of mind can be devised. Fichte emphasizes " the 
unnegligibility of this factor for an education that 
pretends to form the whole man, and which is espe- 
cially intended for a nation whose independence is to 
be regained and maintained " (3 : pp. 410-411). His 
suggestion was taken up by Jahn and his followers, 
and the German gymnastics arose in an endeavor to 
realize this hope, which has not only played a not 
inconsiderable part in the independence and uplifting 
of his people, but has been a great incentive to a 
world-wide movement toward a systematic building 
up of the perfect physique which alone can be the 
temple of the perfect soul. 



152 MODERN EDUCATORS 

Thus '' the training of the child to clarify first his 
sensations, then his perceptions, together with an 
orderly motor culture of his body, are the first essen- 
tials of the new education of the German nation ** 
(3: p. 411). But the second yet more important 
factor is moral education. 

Fichte, in his '' Characteristics of the Present 
Age,'' characterized the spirit of the age as self-seek- 
ing, eudemonistic individualism, and saw the root of 
its final depravity and sinfulness in this erroneous, 
self-destructive principle of social life. Nay, the 
defeat and subjugation of the German nation by a 
foreign power is due to this egoistic individualism. 
Its independence will be lost forever unless the moral 
principle of the people is fundamentally changed. 
In the moral regeneration of the people alone lies the 
hope of Germany. 

According to Fichte, the child naturally has re- 
spect for the right, the good, and the true. '' The 
basis of all moral education is to know and firmly 
presume that there is such an instinct in the child, 
so that its manifestation may be recognized and devel- 
oped higher and higher, through proper stimulation 
and the presentation of materials to satisfy it " ( 3 : 
p. 417). Express instruction, admonition, and con- 
sciously directed and purposive discipline have no 
place; nay, such a course will only '' kill the inner 
moral sense and form the heartless hypocrite " (4: p. 
358). In the hidden depth of the child's own lieart, 
without being self-conscious, must morality spring 



JOHANN GOTTLIEB FICHTE 153 

forth by itself and gradually grow up and irradiate, 
as external relations increase and become clearer to 
him. This should be so and will be so, without any 
purposive interference from outside at all, so long as 
only pure, good examples surround the child, and all 
the bad, mean, and low ones are kept far from his 
eyes. " Beside this protective care, an educator has 
only to set forth a few self-evident and easily observ- 
able positive rules— such as, not to tell a lie, not speak 
or act voluntarily against one's own conscience." 
Conscience, the inner voice of conscience— here the 
universal laws of the moral world reveal themselves. 
Act always according to your conscience — this is the 
golden rule of morality. 

" According to all experience, this law takes hold 
upon the child's mind with a wonderful power; it ele- 
vates him, gives him an internal stronghold, and be- 
comes for him an inexhaustible fountain of inner 
integrity, which is the mother of all virtues, and 
which, being once acquired, one will never fall into a 
helpless depravity " (-i: pp. 358-359). 

Fichte follows his master in saying that we have 
to perform duty simply because it is duty, and not 
from any calculation of personal pleasure. But he 
would not exclude from morality all feeling ele- 
ments, as Kant did. For Kant, even liking or inclina- 
tion of heart was a motive extraneous and even an- 
tagonistic to true morality. Fichte, on the contrary, 

thinks that we ought to advance in our morality^ so 
11 



154 MODERN EDUCATORS 

as to love the g:ood from our innermost, necessary 
inclination or disposition. This alone will be the sure 
and stable basis of virtue and character. Instinct 
had no place in Kantian ethics; all must have come 
from reason — i. e., the enlightened will. But Fichte 
recognizes the existence of the moral instinct, and 
wants simply to develop it. Spontaneity and habitu- 
ation were despised by Kant as mere mechanism 
unworthy of a rational creature, but for Fichte these 
are the highest goal of morality. Here, freedom and 
necessity are one; ought is must. The aim of moral 
education is to establish firmly the inner necessity of 
morality, in the depths of the ego, so that the will 
wishes only the good and right, and cannot wish any- 
thing but the good and right. 

Considered in its social relation, " the root of all 
morality is self-mastery, the conquering of the indi- 
vidual self, the subordination of one's self-seeking 
instincts under the idea of the whole '^ (3: p. 417). 
How can this social consciousness be cultivated ? Not 
by precepts, catechism, nor discipline, but by provid- 
ing the child an environment in which he will spon- 
taneously live, learn, love, and accustom himself to 
a perfect, organic mode of life. Consequently, Fichte 
proposes his plan of an educational community. This 
man of will, who aimed, first of all, to form a strong 
and noble will in the soul of the new generation, 
unlike that man of heart, who wanted to cultivate a 
pure, simple, and loving heart in degraded and neg- 
lected humanity, insisted on the entire separation of 



JOHANN GOTTLIEB FICHTE 155 

children from their home. For, " the pressure and 
care of daily occurrences, the parents' petty exaction 
and eagerness for gain which attach to the home, 
especially of the working classes, will necessarily dis- 
tract and hinder the child from making a free flight 
into the world of thought '' (3: pp. 406-407). He 
is, moreover, to be separated from society at large, 
which is, at present, fundamentally corrupted, and to 
reform which is the aim of the new education. So 
the whole new generation is to be secluded in an inde- 
pendent institution or community, entirely of their 
own and for themselves, therein to grow up, under 
the sole sway of the new education, into the ideal 
citizens of the coming ideal state. This community 
is to rest on the principles of self-activity and co- 
operation, instead of passive slavishness and egoistic 
individualism. Let us see more in detail what was 
the nature of Fichte's proposed institution. 

It is in its general character more a sort of chil- 
dren's communistic colony than a school. It is to 
embody the ideal of a perfect social organism. 

" The organization must be so regulated that an 
individual shall not be simply subordinated to the 
whole, but he shall be enabled to act and work for the 
whole.— It should be a fundamental rule of the organ- 
ization that everyone who excels in any line should 
help in teaching others, and share in various respon- 
sibilities; that everyone who finds the way for any 
improvement, or understands first and most clearly 
the things presented by the teacher, should carry 
them on with his own labor; that everyone should 



156 MODERN EDUCATORS 

satisfy these demands voluntarily and not from com- 
pulsion ; that he should expect no reward, for it must 
be the ruling spirit of the community that each does 
simply his own duty and enjoys purely the pleasure 
of doing and working for the whole, and succeeding 
in the work which falls in his lot " (3: 294-295). 

The organization is to be not only a cultural com- 
munity, but also an industrial and economic one. 
" Besides the mental development in learning there 
should be bodily exercise, and mechanized yet spir- 
itualized labor of farming and varied manual work 
carried on" (3: p. 294). "Learning and work 
should go together " was his motto (3: p. 423). 

The institution is to be self-supporting; at least, 
should appear so to the pupils. 

* ' No article of food or clothing nor any implement, 
so far as possible, should be used which is not pro- 
duced or manufactured in it. If its finance needs 
help from outside, it should be only in the form of 
objects of Nature. . . . For this independence and 
self-sufficiency of the whole each individual works 
with all his might, without settling any account with 
the institution, and without making any claim for his 
personal possession. Each is aware that he is entirely 
responsible to the whole, and enjoys or suffers only 
with the whole. By this means the honorable inde- 
pendence of state and family, of which he should one 
day become a member, will be secured ; by this means 
the relation of the individual to these institutions will 
be comprehended in a living manner, and take root in 
his very soul, never to effaced " (3: p. 425). 



JOHANN GOTTLIEB FICHTE 157 

In this " Economic Education " the child acquires 
his vocational training through his economic activi- 
ties, and his vocational training under these sys- 
tematized and regulated conditions provides him, at 
the same time, a mental and moral culture. He is 
equipped with the fundamental knowledge of, and 
skill in, various branches of productive industry. In 
him the love of self -activity, of work, of study are 
established. He is habituated to the living laws of 
cooperative social life. " Such a child alone will be 
the one whom the educator can safely send out into 
society as its true citizen. Such will be the limit 
which an education can demand from any child in 
the name of the world." 

Fichte stands for the coeducation of the sexes ; since 
" the separation of sexes in a special institution for 
each would be unreasonable, and destroy many essen- 
tials of education for the complete man." In his 
proposed institution the subjects of instruction are 
to be the same for both sexes, while the distinction is 
to be made as to the kind of work. The most impor- 
tant thing is that " both should learn early to rec- 
ognize and love the common humanity in the other, 
and make friends among the opposite sex as well as 
those of their own before attention is directed to the 
sex difference." Moreover, '' the mutual relation of 
both sexes in one whole will develop within the insti- 
tution and in the mind of children manly protection 
on the one hand, and loving assistance on the other " 
(3: p. 422). 



158 MODERN EDUCATORS 

Here ends the education of the child as the future 
citizen of the world. But there is still another and a 
higher thing, which can, in special cases, be done by 
the educator of the people. He may lead the child 
to a life higher tlian that of this visible world. This 
life in religion is the deeply-seated source of true 
morality. " The child of the new education is not 
only a member of human society in this visible 
world, and for a short span of life, but he also is, 
and will no doubt recognize himself to be, a link in 
the eternal cliain of the spiritual life in general. 
One who has penetrated the whole essence of his being 
and recognized the ethical world which has never 
existed, yet eternally should be, will also recognize 
or produce in his thought the transcendental world- 
order, which eternally exists '' (3: p. 297). He shall 
come to seek such a world of ideas and ideals, and 
live in it, as his only real life, light, and blessing, con- 
sidering all else as mere death, darkness, and misery. 
This life in the transcendental world— namely, relig- 
ion—is not a life beyond the grave, but is life imma- 
nent in our earthly existence and extending to 
eternity. 

" To find heaven right on this earth, and let it flow 
perpetually in his daily work ; to implant and to cul- 
tivate the immortal in tlie mortal itself— not merely 
in the mystical and unintelligible way, b"ut in the vis- 
ible way— this is a natural and ever-working instinct 
of man, which is absent only under the pressure of 
necessity " (3: p. 376). 



JOHANN GOTTLIEB FICHTE 159 

To develop this instinct in the child, and lead him 
to the ever higher life of true religion, is the last task 
of the new education. 

The above is a brief sketch of Fichte's plan of the 
new education for the people, by means of which he 
hoped to revive and regenerate the sunken and ruined 
nation. Fichte, like Rousseau and Pestalozzi, san- 
guinely had confidence in the power of a new form of 
education to bring about an immediate reconstruction 
of the existing society, against which they each 
raised the voice of protest. But while Rousseau 
wanted to build a new society on the basis of his new 
natural man, who is to be educated solely through the 
nature of his individual self, and Pestalozzi of his 
new home man, who shall essentially grow up in and 
through the normal home, for Fichte, the foundation 
of the new nation rested on the new social man, who 
is trained in, through, and to an ideal social life 
specially provided to secure his best growth. 

However, his hope for Germany was much larger 
than the mere restoration of her independence and 
solidarity. It was his firm conviction that his peo- 
ple, as the parent stock of the Teutonic race, with an 
original language and a passionate idealism, should 
and will lead the whole world in the progress of sci- 
ence and culture. And with this vision, he conceived 
a new plan for a special scholarly education, which we 
find as radical as his scheme for the common people's 
education. He presents to us two totally different 
forms of education— an extremely anti-academic edu- 



160 MODERN EDUCATORS 

cation for the common people and a highly academic 
education for the intellectual classes. 

The intellectual classes comprise those whose voca- 
tion is to be the leaders of the race in its upward and 
forward march. They are represented by the rulers, 
legislators, administrators, academic teachers, scien- 
tific writers, artists, and preachers. We may divide 
them into two categories: those who strive to elevate 
society into an ideal condition which is realizable at 
the present time, and others who always seek after 
a better, higher, and clearer ideal, and to impart it 
to the contemporary and succeeding generations. 
The function of the latter is the enrichment and 
enlargement of the domain of culture ; that of the 
former is the realization of the cultural ideals already 
attained in the world of actuality, which can be ful- 
filled perfectly only when one has acquired it in his 
own person. Therefore, according to Fichte, rulers 
and statesmen must be scholars and must have re- 
ceived thorough academic training. To see the 
scholar at the head of every department of national 
activity was his dream. What kind of being, then, 
should this glorified scholar be? 

He is to inspire and guide an ever-progressing 
movement of mankind toward freedom from the 
bondage of Nature, of ignorance, and of barbarism, 
toward its ever-increasing self-activity and suprem- 
acy. He must rouse men to the feeling of their true 
wants and make them acquainted with the means of 
satisfying these. " He sees not merely the present, 



JOHANN GOTTLIEB FICIITE 161 

he sees also the future ; he sees not merely the point 
which humanity now occupies, but also that to which 
it must next advance/' He must endeavor to have 
the most widely extended survey of the actual ad- 
vancement of culture, and to extend its domain fur- 
ther. And since " the ultimate purpose of each 
individual man, as well as of all society, and conse- 
quently of all the labors of the scholar in society, is 
the moral elevation of all men ... he ought to ex- 
hibit in himself the highest grade of moral culture 
then possible " (5: pp. 191-193). 

To make the university '' the free nurse, in every 
sense and in its widest meaning," of such scholar- 
ship was the essential aim, for which Fichte.made 
the plan for the national university which was soon 
to be established in Berlin. 

This academic training was to be special and uni- 
versal at the same time. It is special in admitting 
'^ only those who show the special endowment for 
learning, and conspicuous inclination to the world of 
ideas," yet is universal in taking in '' everyone who 
shows the qualifications, without making any excep- 
tion or having any regard to the distinctions of 
parentage." It was to be supported and conducted 
by the hand of the nation, '' for scholarship is not 
for one's individual satisfaction, and every talent for 
it is an invaluable property of a nation " (3 : p. 426). 
The student should be freed from every outside care 
by means of a sufficient support for the present, and 
the guarantee of a proper position in the future. 



162 MODERN EDUCATORS 

On the other hand, he should be completely secluded 
from all other activities and distractions of life in 
order to devote his whole soul to his purpose. 

The child destined to be a scholar is, in his early 
years, to be educated differently from others. Thus, 
in the general scheme of the people's education, 
the time which is spent by others in their economic 
activities is to be devoted in his case to the intellec- 
tual work of self-active learning and solitary think- 
ing, although he shares with the rest in bodily exer- 
cises and in acquiring a general knowledge of vari- 
ous industries. For liim the study of language and 
acquiring the power of speech is necessary and im- 
portant. The classics, especially Greek, should come 
earlier than the modern languages, because Fichte 
thought the former have more unity and harmony 
between the form and the content than have the 
latter, thus favoring the development of vital speech- 
power in the child. 

A university is ' ' the school for the art of scientific 
use of intellect." To implant the lofty sense of 
academic dignity, to cultivate the unceasing love for 
higher culture, to train the power of independent 
creative thinking, are the essential things aimed at. 
Here the student educates himself, professors being 
nothing but his assistants or else elder fellow-schol- 
ars. Lectures should be given, both in spirit and 
content, as a form of answer to the questions previ- 
ously raised by the student, or as the presentation 
of a new problem which shall be the topic of the next 



JOHANN GOTTLIEB FICHTE 163 

hour. Besides the lecture, the following practices are 
recommended : 

1. '' Examina.''^— These are not given for testing 
how far the student can rej^roduce what he has read 
or heard, but for inducing him to make the questions 
presented by his learned master the premises from 
which to deduce his own answers. 

2. " Conversatoria/' in which the student asks 
questions freely, and the master requestions upon 
them — a sort of Socratic dialogue. 

3. AYritten research work assigned to the stu- 
dent on a certain problem. The advanced student is 
encouraged to offer it to himself and also to others. 
Then, since books constitute the main resource of 
accumulated knowledge, the student should be taught 
and accustomed to use them methodically and skil- 
fully. Thus everything goes simply to arouse the 
self-activity of the student, and to provide the mate- 
rials for it. 

On the part of the academic teacher the university 
is not to be looked upon as the place for merely com- 
municating book contents in a slightly modified form ; 
the university stands for the advancement of science 
and the scientific spirit ; not mere repetition nor a lit- 
tle trimming up of the old and known, but the bring- 
ing forth of the new, and the extension of the frontier 
of knowledge. The academic teacher must always 
be an investigator and producer. Fichte advises that 
no one should stay in that calling " in which the 
fountain of youth does not still flow on with an unim- 



164 MODERN EDUCATORS 

paired vigor." '' Let him," lie says, '' faithfully 
intrust himself to its current so long as it will bear 
him forward ; when it leaves him, then let him be con- 
tent to retire from this ever-shifting scene of onward 
movement— let him separate the dead from the liv- 
ing " (5 : p. 307) . Readiness of communication, on the 
one hand, and plasticity to foreign modes of thought 
and new ideas, on the other, is required of him. 

Fichte's schemes both for popular education and 
the university were too Utopian to be immediately 
adopted. Actual reforms were carried out by those 
of more practical talents, and according to more 
practical conceptions. But the world is now coming 
to realize the worth of the vision embodied in his 
** economic " or " citizenship " education; and as to 
his high academic ideal, it has gradually W'On the 
victory in the most advanced universities of to-day. 

REFERENCES 

1. Barnard, Henry. Pestalozzi and His Educational 

System. Bardeen, Syracuse, N. Y., 1906. 751 
pages. 

2. DuPROix, Paul. Kant et Fichte et le Probleme de 

TEducation. Second edition. Alcan, Paris, 1807. 
260 pages. 

3. Fichte, Johann Gottlieb. Reden an die deutsche 

Nation. Samtliche Werke. 8 vols. Veit, Berlin, 
1845-1846. Vol. VII , pp. 259-499. 

4. Aphorismen iiber Erziehung aus dem Jahre, 1804. 

Samtliche Werke. Vol. VIII , pp. 353-360. 



JOHANN GOTTLIEB PICHTE 165 

5. Vocation of the Scholar. On the Nature of the 

Scholar. Popular Works of J. G. Fichte. 2 vols. 
Triibner, London, 18S9. Vol. I, pp. 149-317. 

6. Deducirter Plan zu Berlin zu errichtenden hoheren 

Lehranstalt. Samtliche Werke. Vol. VIII, pp. 
97-219. 

7. GuTiMANN, S. HiRSCH. J. G. Fichtc's soziale Padagogik. 

Scheitlin, Bern, 1907. 100 pages. 

8. Heman, Friedrich. Geschichte der neueren Padagogik. 

Zickfeldt, Osterwieck, 1904. 436 pages. 

9. Keferstein, Horst. J. G. Fichte 's padagogische 

Schriften und Ideen. Richler, Wien, 1883. 238 
pages. 

10. Rein, Georg Wilhelm, editor. Encyklopadisches 

Handbuch der Padagogik. 8 vols. Beyer, Langen- 
salza, 1895-1906. Vol. II. 

11. ScHERER, Heinrich. Die Padagogik in ihrer Entwick- 

lung im Zusammenhange mit dem Kultur- und 
Geistesleben und ihrem Einfluss auf die Gestalthung 
des Erziehungs- und Bildungswesens. Vol. II. Die 
Padagogik als Wissenschaft von Pestalozzi bis zu 
Gegenwart. 3 parts. Brandstetter, Leipzig, 1897- 
1908. 

12. SiELER, Albien. Darstellung der Volkschiilpadagogik. 

J. G. Fichte's im Zusammenhange mit ihren indi- 
viduellen, historischen undphilosophischen Vorausset- 
zungen. Siegismund, Leipzig, 1895. 75 pages. 

13. Strumpell, Ludwig H. Die Padagogik Kant's und 

Fichte 's. Padagogische Abhandlungen. Diechert, 
Leipzig, 1894. Part II. 

14. ZiEGLER, Theobald. Geschichte der Padagogik mit 

besonderer Riicksicht auf das hohere Unterrichts- 
wesen. Beck. Miinchen, 1895. 361 pages. 



CHAPTER VIII 

PRIEDRICII FROEBELi 

(1782-1852) 

James Munroe writes in his " The Educational 
Ideal " : " Practical yet dreamy, scientific yet credu- 
lous, analytic yet mystical, filled with fancies, sym- 
bols, extravagances, exuberant in thought and speech, 
the new born German nation was like a child, with a 
child's surplus of strength, a child's ill-balanced im- 
agination, a child's elastic vision, limited to self, yet 
with a sudden illuminating glimpse into eternity. 
Froebel was the embodiment of this Zeitgeist, this 
exaggeration of yearning, this overestimate of self- 
promise, this glamour of existence, which character- 
ized the Germany of sixty years ago " (15: p. 198). 
He was born the son of a pious, rigorous, and active 
orthodox Lutheran minister, who ' ' never succeeded in 
understanding this troublesome, dreamy, and neg- 
lected child" (2: p. 7). Having lost his mother 
some four months after his birth, and having had 
an unkind stepmother, a mother's love and care were 
practically unknown to him. Thus, as he writes, 
*' unceasing self-contemphition, self -analysis, and self- 

166 



FRIEDRICH FROEBEL 167 

education have been the fundamental characteristics 
of my life from the very first and have remained so 
until these later days" (7: p. 11). These circum- 
stances of his age and his own childhood not only give 
us the key to his whole life, but also to his whole 
philosophy. His precocious and all-pervading religi- 
osity, his passionate affection for Nature, were simply 
natural. From a lifeless and affectionless home he 
fled to the bosom of animated Nature, and thus to his 
mystic pantheism. He writes, in his recollections, of 
one of the incidents of his early childhood : 

' ' I now had what I needed : to the Church was 
added the Nature-Temple; to the religious Christian 
life, the life of Nature; to the passionate discord of 
human life, the tranquil peace of plants. From that 
time it was as if I held the clew of Ariadne to guide 
me through the labyrinth of life. From that time 
humanity and Nature, the life of the soul and the life 
of the flower, were closely knit together in my mind ; 
and I can still see my hazel buds, like angels, opening 
for me the great God's temple of Nature " (7 : p. 12). 

His craze for unity we can largely explain as the 
result of the longing of his restless soul and hungry 
heart for peace. Naturally he found a predetermined 
fascination in Schelling's " Identity Philosophy," 
in w^hich the subjective and the objective worlds are 
identified in one principle. On the other hand, self- 
analysis necessarily leads one to the desire of self- 
perfection and self -education ; thus his incessant 
thirst for " higher culture." So it came that *' I 



16S MODERN EDUCATORS 

carried my own world witliin me, and it was that for 
which I cared and which I cherished " (7: p. 107). 

One tiling saved him from falling into a life of 
l^nre reflection. It was the early habit of engaging 
in manual occupations around the home. This he 
was partly forced to do in accordance with the wish 
of his rigorous father, but he did it also from his own 
inclination. In fact, this was another refuge for 
him. Probably his restless soul, oppressed by the 
indifference and misapprehension of his parents, as 
also by isolation from his playmates, herein found 
its free expression. 

Thus, religion. Nature, and manual work were the 
three great agents of his own education, which he 
later believed also to be the essential for all others. 
He calls the love of Nature, the instinct of workman- 
ship, and religious feeling " the primitive and natu- 
ral inclinations of every human being " (7: p. 5). 
And all these were for him the manifestations of a 
restless, incessant desire and endeavor for unity and 
harmony, which he asserts is " the basis of all genu- 
inely human development and cultivation." 

'' The Education of Man," the most important of 
his writings, opens with the following passage: 

' ' In all things there lives and reigns an eternal law. 
. . . This all-controlling law is necessarily based on 
an all-pervading, energetic, living, self-conscious, and 
hence, eternal unity. . . . This unity is God. All 
things live and have their being in and through the Di- 
vine Unity, in and through God. ... It is the destiny 



PRIEDRICH FROEBEL 169 

and lifework of all things to unfold their essence, . . . 
and, therefore, the Divine Unity itself " (5 : pp. 1-2). 

Thus, according to Froebel, a living, energetic, 
self-conscious unity is both the metaphysical reality 
and the human ideal, and " Education consists in 
leading man to, . . . pure and unsullied consciousness 
and free representation of the inner law of Divine 
IJniiy, and in teaching him ways and means thereto ^' 
(5 : p. 2) . From the Living Unity of all existence, the 
living Unity of every human being is self-evident. 
And here lies the real foundation stone of his philoso- 
phy of education. He writes in his autobiography: 
" Mankind as a whole, as one great Unity, had now 
become my quickening thought. I kept this concep- 
tion constantly before my mind" (7: p. 84). So 
each newborn child not only '' should be viewed and 
treated as a manifestation of the Divine Spirit in 
human form, ' ' but, " as a necessary essential member 
of humanity," he should be viewed and treated *' in 
his obvious and living relations to the present, past, 
and future development of humanity, in order to 
bring the education of the child into harmony with 
the past, present, and future development of human- 
ity and of the race " (5 : pp. 16-17). 

The germ of the evolutionary idea had already 
been floating in the air of the pedagogical world ; we 
see it in Rousseau, in Kant, in Pestalozzi, but it 
found its richest soil in the mind of our incessant self- 
educator. Humanity, he says: 
12 



170 MODERN EDUCATORS 

'' . . . should, therefore, be looked upon not as 
perfected and developed, not as fixed and station- 
ary, but as steadily and progressively growing, in 
a state of ever living development, ever ascending 
from one stage of culture to another toward its aim, 
which partakes of the infinite and eternal. It is 
unspeakably pernicious to look upon the development 
of humanity as stationary and completed, and to see 
in its present phases simply repetitions and greater 
generalizations of itself. For the child, as well as 
every successive generation, becomes thereby exclu- 
sively imitative, an external dead copy — as it were, 
a cast of the preceding one— and not a living ideal 
for its stage of development, which it had attained 
in human development as a whole, to serve future 
generations in all time to come. Indeed, each suc- 
cessive generation and each successive individual 
human being, inasmuch as he would understand the 
past and present, must pass through all preceding 
phases of human development and culture, and this 
should not be done in the way of dead imitation or 
mere copying, but in the way of living, spontaneous 
self-activity. Every human being should realize in 
him these phases spontaneously and freely. . . . For 
in every human being . . . there lies and lives hu- 
manity as a whole ; but in each one it is realized and 
expressed in a wholly particular, peculiar, personal, 
unique manner '' (5: pp. 17-18). 



Only this large and comprehensive view of man 
*' can enable true genuine education to thrive, blos- 
som, bear fruit, and ripen." Now, then, the destiny 
of the child as a member of the family and of human- 
ity is to unfold and realize in him the tendencies 



PRIEDRICH FROEBEL 171 

and forces of the family and of humanity as a whole, 
in their harmony, all-sidedness, and purity. The pa- 
rental character, " their intellectual and emotional 
drift, which, indeed, may as j^et lie dormant in both 
of them as mere tendencies and energies, ' ' are to har- 
monize in his development and culture. ' ' The natu- 
ral and the divine, the terrestrial and the celestial, 
the finite and the infinite," are to be realized in him 
" in harmony and unison." This will be done " if 
each unfolds and realizes his own essence as per- 
fectly, purely, and universally as possible; and, on 
the other hand, as much as possible in accordance 
with his own individuality and personality." There- 
fore, no constraint nor too much assistance should 
be given. " The child should learn early how to 
find in himself the center and fulcrum of all his pow- 
ers and members, to seek his support in this, and, 
resting therein, to move freely and be active, to 
grasp and to hold with his own hands, to stand and 
walk on his own feet, to find and observe with his 
own eyes, to use his members symmetrically and 
equally " (5: pp. 19-21). Thus, in the '' free, all- 
sided use " of one's powers, in the self -active, unhin- 
dered unfolding of every potentiality, Froebel saw 
the equal fulfillment of all the claims both of indi- 
viduality and of humanity. 

Rousseau fought against sacrificing the present for 
the future; Froebel made it clear that the perfect 
fulfillment of the present is, at the same time, the 
guarantee of the future. He says: 



172 MODERN EDUCATORS 

*' The vigorous and complete development and cul- 
tivation of each successive stage depends on the vig- 
orous, complete, and characteristic development of 
each and all preceding stages of life! . . . lite child, 
the hoy, the man, indeed, should know no other en- 
deavor but to be at every stage of development wholly 
what this stage calls for. Then will each successive 
stage spring like a new shoot from a liealthy bud, and 
at each successive stage he will with tlie same endeavor 
again accomplish the requirements of this stage " 
(5: pp. 28-30). 

For Rousseau the developmental stages in the 
chikrs life were somewhat like a succession of 
changes; Froebel conceived them as the gradual un- 
folding of the one organic principle w^liich underlies 
all manifestations of physical and mental life. So 
for Froebel very many things in the life of child- 
hood are symbolic and point to the higher possibilities 
of manhood, and he saw, in thus viewing the matter, 
our best guidance for directing the child in his des- 
tiny. 

'' How salutary would it be for parents and child, 
for their present and future, if the parents believed 
in this symbolism of childhood and boyhood, if they 
heeded the child's life in reference to this. It would 
unite parents and children by a new living tie. It 
would establish a new living connection between their 
present and future life " (5: pp. 18-19). 

But 

" To see and respect in the child and boy the germ and 
promise of the coming youth and man is very differ- 



FRIEDRICII FROEBEL 173 

ent from considering and treating him as if he were 
already a man; very different from asking the child 
or boy to show himself a youth or a man ; to feel, to 
think, and conduct himself as a youth or man " (5: 
p. 29). 

Then what are the nature and requirements of each 
successive stage? Froebel teaches us that the child 
is the only teacher as to his nature and requirements. 
Go and observe him, then you will learn, is his motto. 
But his own child psychology was as much the 
product of self -introspection as of objective observa- 
tion. He read his own mentality into every child. 
Yet we cannot but discern the gems of immortal in- 
sight shining from among the rubbish of obsolete 
speculation and magnified syhibolism. 

Infancy is God in slumber. The eyes of conscious- 
ness have not yet opened. '' The external world 
comes to the child at first out of its void— as it were, 
in misty, formless indistinctness, in chaotic con- 
fusion—even the child and the outer world merge 
into each other " (5: p. 40). Senses and limbs are 
the organs by which we determine the nature and 
relationship of external objects. Yet, ^' at this 
stage of development the young, growing human 
being cares for the use of his body, his senses, his 
limbs, merely for the sake of their use and practice, 
but not for the sake of the results of their use." He 
simply " [jlays with his limbs— his hands, his fingers, 
his lips, his tongue, his feet, as well as the expression 
of his eyes and face " (5: p. 48). Therefore educa- 



174 MODERN EDUCATORS 

tion at this stage is merely to offer to him various ob- 
jects to '' secure occupation for the senses and mind," 
and to prevent mental enervation and weakness. 

Development of the speech function marks an 
epoch. ^' With language, the expression and repre- 
sentation of the internal begin ; with language, or- 
ganization, or a differentiation with reference to 
ends and means, sets in." Speech for an infant is 
the immediate expression of his being. " He does 
not, as yet, know or view it as having a being of its 
own. Like his arm, his eye, his tongue, it is one 
with him, and he is unconscious of its existence." 
Mental education now begins when this instinct of 
self-expression manifests itself and instruction of an 
informal type is now in order. '' The child at this 
stage should see all things rightly and accurately, 
and should designate them rightly and accurately, 
definitely and clearly, and this applies to things and 
objects themselves, as well as to their nature and 
properties. He should properly designate the rela- 
tions of objects in space and time, as well as with one 
another; give each its proper name or word, and utter 
each word in itself clearly and distinctly, according 
to its constituent vocal elements " (5: p. 50-51). 

Play is another form of self-expression. It is * ' the 
highest phase of child development— of human devel- 
opment at this period ; for it is self-active representa- 
tion of the inner — representation of the inner from 
inner necessitij and impulse.''^ Indeed, play is the 
corner-stone of the kindergarten, and no one had 



FRIEDRICH FROEBEL 175 

before shown the inherent value of play to child life 
in such strong and beautiful words as did Froebel. 

' ' Play is the purest, most spiritual activity of man 
at this stage, and, at the same time, typical of human 
life as a whole— of the inner hidden natural life in 
man and all things. It gives joy, freedom, content- 
ment, inner and outer rest, peace with the world.'* 
'^ Cultivate and foster it, mother! " exclaims he; 
' ' protect and guard it, father ! ' ' For ' ' the plays 
of childhood are the germinal leaves of all later life, 
and a child that plays thoroughly, with self-active 
determination, perseveringly until physical fatigue 
forbids, will surely be a thorough, determined man, 
capable of self-sacrifice for the promotion of the 
welfare of himself and others. Is not the most beau- 
tiful expression of child life at this time, a playing 
child— a child wholly absorbed in his play— a child 
that has fallen asleep while so absorbed? " (5: pp. 
54-55). 

Thus ^' play and speech constitute the element in 
which the child lives," and he animates the whole 
world, organic and inorganic, with his newly awak- 
ened soul, full of self-expressing activity. 

'' The child at this stage imparts to each thing the 
faculties of life, feeling, and speech. Of everything, 
he imagines it can hear. Because the child himself 
begins to represent his inner being outwardly, he 
imputes the same activity to all about him, to the 
pebble and chip of wood, to the plant, the flower, and 
the animal " (5: p. 54). 



176 MODERN EDUCATORS 

In the emphasis Proebel laid on this animistic or 
anthropomorphic communion of the child with Nature 
lies another great merit. 

Rhythm as an important educational factor of 
early childhood is another discovery of his. Froebel 
sees the natural operation of this in the mother's 
dandling of the child up and down on her hand or 
arm in rhythmic movements and with rhythmic 
sounds. He writes: 

" An early pure development of rhythmic move- 
ment would prove most wholesome in the succeeding 
life periods of the human being. AVe rob ourselves 
as educators, and we still rob the child as pupil by 
discontinuing so soon the development of rhythmic 
movements in early education. . . . Much willfulness, 
impropriety, and coarseness would be taken out of 
his life, his movements, and actions. He would secure 
more firmness and moderation, more harmony; and, 
later on, there would be developed in him a higher 
appreciation of Nature and art, of music and poetry " 
(5: pp. 70-71). 

He goes even so far as to say that '' for early 
youth, language representation should assume a 
rhythmic form, for this is its first form in the early 
youth of mankind." He thinks that " all primitive 
language expressions, as representations of active 
inner and outer life, are necessarily rhythmic," and 
*' the loss of this has deprived him and mankind as a 
whole of one of the foremost, most primitive, and 
most natural means of elevation " (5: p. 218). 



FRIEDRICH FROEBEL 177 

Drawing as a means of the child's self-expression, 
his natural language, is yet another discovery of 
Froebel. He says : 

" The faculty of drawing is, therefore, as much in- 
nate in the child, in man, as is the faculty of speech, 
and demands its development and cultivation as im- 
peratively as the latter ; experience shows this clearly 
in the child's love for drawing, in the child's instinc- 
tive desire for drawing." " The word and drawing 
belong together inseparably, as light and shadow ' ' ; 
they are " mutually explanatory and complementary; 
for neither one is, by itself, exhaustive and sufficient 
with reference to the object represented " (5: p. 79). 

His observation of the development of this drawing 
instinct in the child is keen and suggestive. 

'* Give the child a bit of chalk or the like, and 
soon a new creation will stand before him and you. 
Let the father, too, in a few lines sketch a man, a 
horse. This man of lines, this horse of lines, will give 
the child more joy than an actual man, an actual horse 
would do " (5: p. 77). 

This linear representation of objects 

" opens to the child on the threshold of boyhood a 
new world in various directions. Not only can he 
represent the outer world in reduced measure, and 
thus comprehend it more easily with his eyes; not 
only can he reproduce outwardly what lives in his 
mind as a reminiscence or new association, but the 
knowledge of a wholly invisible world, the world of 
forces, has its tenderest rootlets right here " (5 : p. 76). 



178 MODERN EDUCATORS 

The beneficial effects of drawing are '' more than 
I can enumerate— a clear conception of forms, the 
power to represent the forms independently, the 
fixing of the forms as such, strengthening and prac- 
tice of the arm and hand " ; it ' ' increases knowledge, 
awakens the judgment and reflection, which avoids 
so many blunders, and which, in a natural way, can- 
not be aroused too soon '' (5: pp. 76-79). 

Counting is also looked upon by Froebel as an in- 
stinct springing from the nature of the child—'' an 
essential need of his inner being, a certain yearn- 
ing of his spirit which should be given due expres- 
sion " (5: p. 80). ''Mathematics is," he thinks, 
" neither foreign to actual life nor something de- 
duced from life; it is the expression of life as such: 
therefore its nature may be studied in life, and life 
may be studied with its help " (5: p. 206). There- 
fore the conception of number should not be forced 
in abstract form. It originates from the reappear- 
ance of similar objects, and, according to Froebel, 
" the drawing of the object leads to the discovery 
of number " (5: p. 80). 

As to the child's participation in the domestic 
activities, Froebel lays great stress upon this since he 
regards it as a great source of knowledge, the basis 
of the family and social bond, the soil in whicli the 
habit of work and industry grows. Do not impose 
any domestic or professional tasks upon tlie cliild 
for the sake of the results, but allow his meddling 
with them for the sake of the activity in itself. 



FRIEDRICH FROEBEL 179 

^' The child— your child, ye fathers— feels this so 
intensely, so vividly, that he follows you wherever 
you are, wherever you go, in whatever you do. Do 
not harshly repel him ; show no impatience about his 
ever-recurring questions. Every harshly repelling 
word crushes a bud or shoot of his tree of life. Do 
not, however, tell him in words much more than he 
could find himself without your words. ... To have 
found one fourth of the answer by his own effort is 
of more value and importance to the child than it is 
to half hear and half understand it in the words of 
another ; for this causes mental indolence. Do not, 
therefore, always answer your children's questions at 
once and directly ; but as soon as they have gathered 
sufficient strength and experience, furnish them with 
the means to find them answers in the sphere of their 
own knowledge " (5: pp. 86-87). 

This early childhood is essentially the period of 
growth, of life, of nursing, and thus its education is 
the duty of parents. A child's life at this stage is 
already rich and real; our task is '' to guard, nurse, 
and develop the inner germ of his life " by quick- 
ening all his powers and natural gifts and to enable 
all his members and organs to fulfil the requirements 
of these. Many ' ' suppose the child to be empty, wish 
to inoculate him with life, make him as empty as they 
think him to be, and deprive him of life, as it were " 
(5: p. 70). 

Now we come to another epoch of childhood, which 
Froebel calls the stage of boyhood. The preceding 
period was ' ' preeminently the period of development 
of the faculty of speech " (5: p. 90). Whatever the 



180 MODERN EDUCATORS 

child perceived was designated by the word. It was 
the period for naming. 

** Every object, everything became such, as it were, 
only through the word; before it had been named, 
altliough the child might have seemed to see it with 
the outer eyes, it had no existence for the child. The 
name, as it were, created the thing for the child; 
hence, the name and the things seemed to be one." 

But now sets in the separation between speech 
and the speaking subject, the name and the object; 
language at last " is externalized and materialized in 
signs and writing, and begins to be considered as some- 
thing actually corporeal " (5: pp. 91-93). This new 
period, thinks Froebel, is preeminently the period for 
learning, for schooling, for instruction proper. In 
the preceding stage everything was considered as the 
expression of the child's own being; the spontaneous 
activity springing from his inner life was the starting- 
point and center of his education ; its process was the 
externalization of the internal. That process is now 
reversed ; it is the internalization of the external ; we 
start from the outer world and unite with it in the 
inner world of the child. 

'' The consideration and treatment of individual 
and particular things, as such, and in their inner 
bearings and relationships, constitute the essential 
cliaracter and work of instruction. . . . This instruc- 
tion is conducted not so much in accordance with the 
nature of man as in accordance with the fixed, defi- 



FRIEDRICII FROEBEL 181 

nite, clear laics that lie in the nature of things, and 
more particularly the laws to which man and things 
are equally subjected. . . . This implies knowledge, 
insight, a conscious and comprehensive view of the 
field. . . . With tliis period school begins for him, be 
it in the home or out of it, and taught by the father, 
members of the family, or a teacher. School, then, 
means here by no means the schoolroom or school- 
keeping, but the conscious communication of knowl- 
edge, for a definite purpose and in definite inner 
connection ^^ (5: pp. 94-95). 

By this it seems clear that Froebel distinguished 
the character and function of the school from those 
of the kindergarten. He explicitly states this in one 
of his letters (2: p. 155). 

But the education of the efferent side of the human 
soul should never be neglected. It is the inner life 
of a man, and its development and cultivation must 
" constitute an unbroken whole, steadily and con- 
tinuously progressing, gradually ascending." It be- 
gins with '' the feeling of community awakened in 
the infant, becomes in the child impulse, inclination ; 
these lead to the formation of the disposition and of 
the heart and arouse in the boy his intellect and will ' ' 
(5: pp. 95-96). Now " to give firmness to the will, 
to quicken it, and make it pure, strong, and endur- 
ing, in a life of pure humanity, is the chief concern, 
the main object in the guidance of the hoy.'' To 
attain this aim " the starting-point of all mental 
activity in the boy should be energetic and sound; 
the source whence it flows, pure, clear, and ever-flow- 



182 MODERN EDUCATORS 

ing ; the direction simple, definite ; the object fixed, 
clear, living and life-giving, elevating, worthy of 
effort, worthy of the destiny and the mission of man, 
worthy of his essential nature, and tending to de- 
velop it, and give it full expression." But the 
source of the will is in the disposition and heart. 
Therefore " instruction and example alone and in 
themselves are not sufficient; they must meet a good, 
l)ure heart "; '' activity and firmness of the will rest 
upon the activity and firmness of the feelings and 
heart." This latter is best secured in the child by 
" the complete enjoyment of play," yet above all 
by participation in the domestic life. 

'' Family life alone secures the development and 
cultivation of a good heart and of a thoughtful, gentle 
disposition in their full intensity and vigor, also in- 
comparably important for every period of growth, 
nay, even for the whole life of man " (5 : pp. 96-97). 

Now in the period of boyhood the child's play 
should become vigorous and even venturesome. " He 
never evades an obstacle, a difficulty, nay, he seeks 
it." " Hence the daring and venturesome feats of 
boyhood; the exploration of caves and ravines; the 
climbing of trees and mountains; the reaching of 
heights and depths; the roaming through fields and 
forests " (5: p. 102). And every adventure widens 
his scope of life, means to him ^' the discovery of a 
new world." Athletic games and sports are recom- 
mended by Froebel as a means of character-building as 



FRIEDRICH FROEBEL 183 

well as physical exercise, but the excursion was a chief 
educational feature of his institute at Keilhau; he 
thought that every teacher ought to conduct an excur- 
sion party at least once a week. 

As to participation in the domestic occupations, 
it should become wider and more real than before. 
In the former period it was mere imitation, but now 
it is a voluntary share ; formerly it was a part of 
play, but now it begins to become work. " What 
formerly the child did only for the sake of the activ- 
ity, the boy does now for the sake of the results or 
products of his activity ; the child 's instinct of activ- 
ity has, in the boy, become a formative instinct, and 
this occupies the whole outward life, the outward 
manifestation of boy-life in this period " (5: p. 99). 
This creative instinct is, for Froebel, the pledge of 
the divine essence of the human soul, and its exercise 
secures the child the best development of his spiritu- 
ality and the highest felicity. 

" We become truly Godlike in diligence and indus- 
try, in working and doing, which are accompanied by 
the clear perception, or even by the vaguest feeling, 
that we thereby represent the inner in the outer ; that 
we give body to spirit, and form to thought; that 
we render visible the invisible; that we impart an 
outward, finite, transient being to life in the spirit. 
Through this Godlikeness we rise more and more to 
a true knowledge of God, to insight into His Spirit; 
and thus, inwardly and outwardly, God comes ever 
nearer to us. Therefore, Jesus so truly says in this 
connection of the poor, ' Theirs is the kingdom of 



184 MODERN EDUCATORS 

heaven ' if they could but see and know it and prac- 
tice it in diligence and industry, in productive and 
creative work. Of children, too, is the kingdom of 
heaven ; for, unchecked by the presumption and con- 
ceit of adults, they yield themselves in childlike trust 
and cheerfulness to their formative and creative in- 
stincts " (5: p. 31). 

Froebel pictures what a variety of materials a coun- 
try home presents for the strengthening and develop- 
ing of this instinct, and how these various occupations 
again stimulate our intellectual activity. 

*' The son accompanies his father everywhere— to 
the field and to the garden, to the shop and to the 
counting house, to the forest and to the meadow; in 
the care of domestic animals and in the making of 
small articles of household furniture ; in the splitting, 
sawing, and piling of the wood; in all the work his 
father's trade or calling involves. Question upon 
question comes from the lips of the boy thirsting 
for knowledge— How? Why? When? What for? 
Of what?— and every somewhat satisfactory answer 
opens a new world to the boy ^' (5: pp. 101-102). 

Froebel's insight is confirmed by modern child- 
study, as in many other points, in the emphasis which 
he laid on stories, legends, and fairy tales as neces- 
sary food for a boy 's inner being. He says : 

'' There is developed in the boy at this age the de- 
sire and craving for tales, for legends, for all kinds of 
stories, and later on for historical accounts. This 
craving, especially in its first appearance, is very in- 
tense ; so much so that, when others fail to gratify it, 



FRIEDRICH FROEBEL 185 

the boys seek to gratify it themselves, particularly on 
days of leisure and in times when the regular employ- 
ments of the day are ended " (5: pp. 115-116). 

He thinks that this is the dawn of historical interest, 
the longing to know the past, and he notices the 
strange or almost mystic harmony or communion be- 
tween the figures and events in these stories of the 
past and the children's own inner thoughts and 
feelings. 

Another side of the boy's story interest is his 
anthropomorphism. This has already existed during 
the earlier period, but it develops with the growth of 
the child's soul. Froebel says: 

" There is developed in him the intense desire for 
fables and fairy tales which impart language and rea- 
son to speechless things— the one within and the other 
beyond the limits of human relations and human, 
earthly phenomena of life. ... If here, too, the boy 's 
desire is not or cannot be gratified by his attendants 
he will spontaneously hit upon the invention and pres- 
entation of fairy tales and fables, and either work 
them out in his own mind alone or entertain his com- 
panions with them " (5: pp. 116-117). 

Boyhood is preeminently the age of day-dreams and 
story-telling. Again, boyhood is the period of song. 
The juvenile flow of the life tide finds its outlet in 
the living waves of rhythm. 

" How the serene, happy boy of this age rejoices 
in song! He feels, as it were, a new, true, life in 
13 



186 MODERN EDUCATORS 

song. It is the sense of growing power that in his 
wandering from the valley to the hill and from hill 
to hill, pours forth the joyous songs from his throat '* 

(5: p. 118). 

Songs are enjoyed by him when put into the mouths 
of others, because they express the stirring of his 
own soul in the way he wishes. 

*' Whatever his mind vaguely apprehends fills his 
heart with joy and pleasure, as the sense of the power 
and the feeling of spring, he would fain express in 
words ; but he feels himself unable to do so. He seeks 
for words, and as he cannot yet find them in him- 
self, he rejoices intensely to hear them from others '' 
(5: p. 117). 

As to the subsequent stages of human life, Froebel 
never fulfilled his promise to write about them. The 
attention and efforts of his later years were entirely 
concerned with a plan for the education of early 
childhood. And thus he is remembered and is to be 
remembered forever as the founder of the kindergar- 
ten system. The idea of the kindergarten rests on 
the belief that on the complete unfolding of the inner 
power of childhood in its all-sidedness, on the full 
gratification of its peculiar needs and requirements, 
depends the normal development of boyhood, of youth, 
of man— the entire destiny of human life. This has 
been recognized by every educator, but never before 
so keenly and clearly as by Froebel. Moreover, for 
Rousseau, early childhood was looked upon as purely 
a physical stage, when education should be purely 



FRIEDRICH FROEBEL 187 

negative. ' ' Stand aside and let Nature herself work ' ' 
was his motto. But Froebel saw plenty of room here 
for human cooperation with the working of Nature. 
Not " Stand aside," but '' Come, let us live with 
and for our children,'^ was what he exclaimed (5: 
p. 89). He saw that the school cannot do much with 
the spoiled and neglected child sent from the imper- 
fect home, and that the present home does not well 
understand nor provide sufficiently for the nature 
and requirements of the child's soul as well as body. 
Thus he proclaimed: " All school education was yet 
without a proper initial foundation, and that, there- 
fore, until the education of the nursery was reformed, 
nothing solid and worthy could be attained '^ (2: p. 
35). The kindergarten movement was originally a 
movement for nursery reform. It was intended to 
show mothers an ideal nursery, and also to supple- 
ment, where needed, the work of the home. It is 
evident that he had a sort of education of parents 
in view when he first started the kindergarten. 
'' He repeated this again and again," Baroness von 
Marenholz-Biilow, the champion of the kindergarten 
movement, tells us. ^' ' The destiny of nations lies 
far more in the hands of women— the mothers— than 
in the possessors of power, or of those innovators 
who for the most part do not understand themselves. 
We must cultivate women who are the educators of 
the human race, else the new generation cannot ac- 
complish its task.' This was almost always the sum 
of his discourse " (14: p. 4). Certainly his kinder- 



188 MODERN EDUCATORS 

garten was set as the model for mothers to copy in 
their homes. We find the following passage in one 
of his letters: 

" Let young women go there and see the develop- 
ment of child-life going on before their eyes, noticing 
and understanding the laws and working of it." 
" There is little hope for improvement until mothers 
will begin to educate themselves. Let them attend 
kindergarten and study the system themselves " (8: 
p. 64). 

He did " not call this by the name usually given to 
similar institutions, that is, Infant Schools, because 
it is not to be a school, for the children in it will not 
be schooled, but freely developed " (2: p. 33). To 
use his favorite allegory, children are to be in it like 
plants, and the attendants are like the gardeners. 
The character of the kindergarten was essentially to 
be distinct from that of the school. Yet in the initial 
motive and conception of the kindergarten there lies 
the elements which allow his followers to make the 
two different interpretations of the nature of the 
kindergarten. One is to consider it simply as the 
place " to provide a condition of life for childhood 
that renders it pure and beautiful," as Herr von 
Arnswald tells us—" a social nursery par excellence.^* 
He says: 

" The gifts and games were offered by Froebel for 
the purpose of satisfying and directing the sponta- 
neous impulse to work, but not as a sort of nourisli- 
ment to feed the mind of the child. He preferred 



FRIEDRICH FROEBEL 189 

open pasture to stable feeding. In other words, the 
direction, ' Come, let us live for our children,' does 
not mean that we shall teach children by playing, but 
that we shall play with them in a sensible way. 
According to this view the original idea of the kin- 
dergarten can and should be realized in every fam- 
ily. It is not enough for parents, that have neither 
sense nor inclination to assimilate the principle of 
the Froebel system, to send their children to the kin- 
dergarten for no other purpose than that of keeping 
the little ones from home. . . . The transformation of 
the kindergarten into a children 's refuge with the ap- 
pearance of a school would surely be a crime against 
the nature of the child " (8: pp. 23-24). 

He even goes so far as to say: 

' ' That a child, when watched over and cared for sym- 
pathetically, will develop more rapidly, may be an 
effect, but it is not the end of the kindergarten " 
(8: p. 23). 

The other interpretation is represented by Arnold 
H. Heinemann. He says: '^ It was his intention to 
make the kindergarten not only a, but the sole, ' pre- 
paratory institution for the public school ' " (8: p. 
27). An English writer, Boardman, counts among 
the advantages of the kindergarten that it ' ' increases 
their (the children's) aptitude for the studies of later 
school life," and that it " fosters a liking for school 
work." According to him, everything should be 
disciplinary, educative, and carried out with " direct 
aim toward intellectual, moral, and physical develop- 



190 MODERN EDUCATORS 

ment, " through ^' the strictly correct mode of pro- 
cedure." He understands that: 

" Unlike Pestalozzi, who believed the mother to be 
the chief agent in directing the child's education, 
Froebel considered that the mother should partially 
relinquish the charge of the child at three years of 
age, delivering him over more or less to the society of 
others, who would exert a somewhat different, though 
still beneficial influence over his character, by which 
means also his limited sphere of experience would 
be gradually extended, and scope given for daily 
strengthening his mental and physical powers " (1: 
p. 40). 

That both these interpretations contain a partial 
truth is clear from the following quotation from 
Froebel's '' Prospectus of an Institution for the 
Training of Nurses and Educators of Children." 
He states; 

' ' The institution intends to render generally acces- 
sible an education in agreement with the nature of 
the child and of man, and satisfying the demands of 
the age, and to show how such an education can be 
carried on in the family. This can only be done by 
preparing young ladies for the business of nursing, 
developing, and educating a child from its birth until 
it can go to school. The course will also qualify its 
pupil to prepare children for the first grade of the ele- 
mentary course of the public school " (8: pp. 71-72). 

Further, he writes: 

^ ' A complete preparation for bringing up and edu- 
cating children ought to make the pupil theoretically 



FRIEDRICH FROEBEL 191 

and practically conversant with all the requirements 
of the child concerning its bodily (dietetic) and men- 
tal (pedagogic) needs from the cradle to school age. 
But that is not enough : the normal school pupil ought 
also to be enabled to impart a good preparation for 
the first grade of the elementary classes of the public 
school " (8: p. 74). 

These *' child nurses *' and ^* child guides '* were to 
go out as professional women, and '' provide kinder- 
garten training within the family " as mother's help- 
ers. '^ But since every family cannot afford to do 
this individually, it should be carried out as a 
problem of general cooperation, to be solved by and 
for all the people." In his invitation to form a 
^' General German Educational Union," Froebel had 
spoken as follows: " The improvements of education 
ought to begin in the home circle, starting w4th the 
groundwork necessary for every education, namely, 
the careful development of children previous to their 
reception into the public school, ' ' and ' ' when kinder- 
garten training is not within reach, the union ought 
to devise means for procuring the necessary help for 
the introduction of such training into the family 
circle or otherwise " (8: p. 39). But, under the cir- 
cumstances of the age, and in the course of time, the 
domestic aspect of the kindergarten receded into the 
background, and the institutional aspect developed, 
W'ith its natural consequence of systematization and 
formalization. 

The original spirit of the kindergarten training was 



192 MODERN EDUCATORS 

the careful fostering and the full gratification of all 
the instinctive, spontaneous activities of the child's 
body and soul. The free and complete unfolding and 
development of his life and being was its sole aim. 
All the plays and occupations of the child were con- 
sidered simply as the free, spontaneous expression of 
his instinctive activities, springing from the necessity 
of his inner being— the externalization of the inter- 
nal. But, gradually and unconsciously, the means 
and inventions to supply the demands of this child 
nature became end in themselves; the plays and occu- 
pations became the instruction and the schooling; it 
came to be that the child was treated as if he lived 
in order to learn these things; the *' gifts," which 
were invented only as one of thousands of means to 
aid the child's development, came to be almost the 
whole business of the kindergarten. Let it liberate 
itself from " the increasing worship of the baggages 
of his pedagogy," and return to the never-dying 
spirit of its originator. ' ' Let us learn from our chil- 
dren. Let us give heed to the gentle admonitions 
of their life, to the silent demands of their minds " 
(5: p. 89). 

As to the estimation of Froebel's pedagogy there is 
a great disparity of opinions. James Munroe thinks 
that, ' ' without* being a psychologist, he gave a psy- 
chologic twist to all his theories, and complacently 
esteemed his will-o'-the-wisp of fancy to be the beacon 
lights of progress " (15: p. 200). Compayre's criti- 
cism is no less unfavorable when he says: '' An im- 



FRIEDRICII FROEBEL 193 

partial and thorough study of Froebel's work will 
abate rather than encourage this excessive infatua- 
tion and this somewhat artificial enthusiasm." In 
his opinion, " like most of the Germans of this cen- 
tury, he has ventured on the conception of a nebulous 
philosophy, and, following the steps of Hegel, he has 
too often deserted the route of observation and ex- 
periment, to strike out into metaphysical divigations. ' ' 
^' But," he adds, '' his practical work is worth more 
than his writings, and he cannot be denied the glory 
of having been a bold and happy innovator in the 
field of early education" (4: p. 447). Quick con- 
siders his " Education of Man " as "a book with 
seven seals," and confesses that '' at times he goes 
entirely out of sight, and whether the words we hear 
are the expression of deep truth or have absolutely 
no meaning at all, I for my part am at times to- 
tally unable to determine" (17: p. 397). Yet he 
says : ' ' All the best tendencies of modern thought on 
education seem to me to culminate in what was said 
and done by Friedrich Froebel, and I have little 
doubt that he has shown the right road for future 
advance " (17: p. 384). G. Stanley Hall, whose edu- 
cational ideas have much in common with Froebel, 
says: ^' His was one of the deepest, truest, and most 
intuitive of minds," and " his heart was one of the 
most devoted to be found in the whole history of 
education " (11: p. 579). But he regrets that " un- 
fortunately his schematizations and applications were 
not only premature but overdone." Froebel, as a 



194 MODERN EDUCATORS 

man and a thinker, was a mystic, a pantheistic or 
theosophic mystic; in his training and vocation he 
had been a civil engineer before he became a teacher. 
This strange combination is reflected npon his kin- 
dergarten pedagogy, ingenious schemes and devices 
dignified by esoteric speculations. Yet behind these 
unworthy '^ pedagogic scarecrows " one cannot but 
discern the immortal starlight of his genius brighten- 
ing the highway of future education. 

The great idea of developmental stages introduced 
into the educational world by Comenius was chiefly 
in the line of instruction, and rather artificial. Rous- 
seau's great genius made it more vital and real, but 
he viewed it chiefly from the standpoint of training. 
Froebel took a more comprehensive and philosophical 
view of the matter, and combined the tendencies of 
both. And while the Frenchman excels in his treat- 
ment after the age of the teens, the German confines 
his study to the age of childhood, best supplementing 
the former. Rousseau as a Romanticist, unfettered 
by the conventions of society, called to us: " Give 
back to the child its world." Froebel, whose child- 
hood Avas a life misunderstood and mistreated, says: 
'^ Find the child's soul and restore it to him." Pes- 
talozzi wanted to restore home to the child and make 
it its school. Froebel wanted to make it the ideal 
nursery by organizing all the educative forces in and 
around it into a unity or system. Pestalozzi tried 
to systematize the groundwork of sense-education, 
Froebel that of instinct-cultivation. For Pestalozzi 



FRIEDRICH FROEBEL 195 

the domestic life was the chief agent of the child's 
natural development; Froebel added to it free play 
in the lap of nature. For Pestalozzi, education was 
the development of man by the exercise of his pow- 
ers; for Froebel it was the unfolding of the germinal 
spirit by self -active creation. Fichte's creative soul 
formed the cosmos within itself; it was mainly the 
creation of the world of ideas; but Froebel's produces 
its creation in the world of objects. Pestalozzi became 
an educator by the way of a social reformer ; Froebel, 
by the way of a teacher. The former aimed to unite 
education with society; the latter aimed to unite in- 
struction with education. Pestalozzi 's heart throbbed 
for degraded humanity as a whole, and wanted to 
make out of it a people with economic independence, 
political equality, enlightened intellect, and pure, lov- 
ing, and pious heart; Froebel's eyes penetrated to the 
ungratified longings of an individual soul, not under- 
stood even by itself, and " sought to give to man 
himself " (7 : p. 49) by leading him to what his inner 
nature craves to be. If Pestalozzi was the greater 
educator, Froebel w^as the greater teacher. 

To leave these summary comparisons, Froebel is the 
best and truest successor of Pestalozzi, the more so 
from the very fact that he differed from the latter in 
many respects. By his clearer and more comprehen- 
sive understanding of the child's nature and wants, 
by his enlarging the means to meet these, by his ex- 
tending the scope and stage of educability of the 
child, he best complements the work begun by his 



196 MODERN EDUCATORS 

predecessor. We may say with Carl Cassau : '' He 
has regained for the child its paradise, and thus 
crowned the work of Pestalozzi " (18: p. 464). 



REFERENCES 

1. BoARDMAN, J. H. Educational Ideas of Froebel and 

Pestalozzi. Second edition. Normal Press, London. 
(Normal Tutorial Series.) 190-. 76 pages. 

2. BowEN, Herbert Courthope. Froebel and Education 

by Self-Activity. Scribner, New York, 1897. 209 
pages. 

3. Cole, P. R. Herbart and Froebel : an Attempt at Synthe- 

sis. Teacher's College, Columbia University, New 
York, 1907. 116 pages. 

4. CoMPAYRE, Jules Gabriel. History of Pedagogy. 

Translated, with an introduction, notes, and an index, 
by W. H. Payne. Heath & Co., Boston, 1903. 597 
pages. 

5. Froebel, Friedrich Wilhelm August. Education of 

Man. Translated and annotated by W. H. Hailman. 
(International Education Series.) Appleton, New 
York, 1887. 332 pages. 

6. Mother Songs, Games, and Stories. Translated by 

Francis and Emily Lord, containing original illustra- 
tions and the music. New and revised edition. 
Rice, London, 1890. 36 + 212 + 75 pages. 

7. Autobiography. Translated and annotated by E. 

Michaelis and H. K. Moore. Bardeen, Syracuse, 
N. Y., 1889. 167 pages. 

8. Letters. Edited by A. E. Heinemann. Lee & 

Shepard, Boston, 1903. 182 pages. 



FRIEDRICH PROEBEL 197 

9. Letters on the Kindergarten. Edited and annotated 

by E. Michaelis and H. K. Moore. Sonnenschein, 
London, 189L 331 pages. 

10. Pedagogics of the Kindergarten; or His Ideas Con- 
cerning the Play and the Playthings of the Child. 
Translated by Josephine Jarvis. Appleton, New 
York, 1895. 37 + 337 pages. (International Educa- 
tion Series.) 

11. Hall, Granville Stanley. Some Defects of the Kin- 

dergarten in America. Forum, January, 1900. Vol. 
XXVIII, pp. 579-591. 

12. Hanschal\nn, Alexander Bruno. Friedrich Froebel, 

die Entwicklung seiner Erziehungsidee in seinem 
Leben. Bacmeister, Eisenach, 1874. 480 pages. 

13. MacVannel, John Angus. The Educational Theories of 

Herbart and Froebel. Teacher's College, Columbia 
University, New York, 1906. 120 pages. 

14. MARENHOLz-BtJLOw, Bertha Maria. Reminisceuces of 

Friedrich Froebel. Translated by Mrs. Horace 
Mann. With a sketch of the life of Friedrich Froebel 
by Emily Schirreff. Lee & Shepard, Boston; 
Dillingham, New York, 1895. 359 pages. 

15. MuNROE, James Phinney. The Educational Ideal: an 

Outline of its Growth in Modern Times. Heath & 
Co., Boston, 1896. 262 pages. 

16. PoRTUGALL, Adele VON. Friedrich Froebel, sein Leben 

und Wirken. Teubner, Leipzig, 1905. 154 pages. 

17. Quick, Robert Hebert. Essays on Educational Re- 

formers. Appleton, New York, 1890. 560 pages. 
The same (International Education Series), 1903. 
568 pages. 

18. Rein, Georg Wilhelai. Encyklopadisches Handbuch 

der Padagogik. 8 vols. Beyer, Langensalza, 1895- 
1906. Vol. II. 



198 MODERN EDUCATORS 

19. ScHERER, Heinrich. Die Piidagogik in ihrer Entwick- 

lung im Ziisammenhange mit dem Kultur- und 
Geistesleben und ihreni ICinfluss auf die CJestaltung 
des Erziehungs- und Bildungswcsens. Vol. II. Die 
Padagogik als Wissenschaft von Pestalozzi bis zur 
Gegenwart. 3 parts. Brandstetter, Leipzig, 1897- 
1908. 

20. ScHMiD, Karl Adolf. Geschichte der Erziehung vom 

Anfang an bis auf unsere Zeit. 5 vols. Gotta, 
Stuttgart, 188-4-1902. Vol. III. 



1 



CHAPTER IX 

JOHANN FRIEDRICH HERBART 

(1776-1841) 

Pestalozzi found the most original successor of his 
educational reform in the intuitive mind of Proebel; 
the work of education as a benevolent and intelligent 
assistance to the natural evolution of the child-soul 
was carried on further by the latter. But the suc- 
cessor most competent to systematize and complete his 
pedagogical ideas was found in the analytical mind 
of Herbart; Pestalozzi ^s innovations in the field of 
elementary instruction underwent a careful working 
over by this keen and comprehensive intellect of thor- 
ough academic training. To bring about psycholog- 
ical unity and sequence in school instruction was one 
of the life aims of Froebel, but he stopped short at 
the kindergarten, and, moreover, left us no scientific 
theory. Herbart, on the contrary, not only aimed at 
the same, but worked out a system on the broadest 
scientific and philosophic basis which his age per- 
mitted him. According to Herbart, ' ' to discover this 
sequence is Pestalozzi 's chief effort and likewise my 
own great ideal. ' ' He found the solution in the prin- 

199 



200 MODERN EDUCATORS 

ciple of the A. B. C. of perception, ' ' that grand idea 
of its discoverer, the noble Pestalozzi," as he called 
it. But '* Pestalozzi has only worked out the appli- 
cation of the principle within the narrow sphere of 
elementary instruction. It belongs, in truth, to edu- 
cation as a whole, though it needs for that a further 
development '^ (6: p. 178). This Pestalozzian prin- 
ciple, interpreted by Herbart, probably means the 
systematic building up of the entire mental mech- 
anism of the pupil from its simplest and fundamental 
elements or constituents, in the necessary psycholog- 
ical order and with mathematical exactness. 

These two German educators, Froebel and Ilerbart, 
who both may be called the contemporary disciples 
of the great Swiss reformer, have much in common 
in their pedagogical ideas, but they were totally dif- 
ferent in temperament, training, metaphysical con- 
ceptions, and practical careers. They do not seem 
even to have known each other. Herbart reminds 
me, more than anyone else, of Kant, of whom he was 
a great admirer and to whom he seems to owe much. 
In his rather stoical physiognomy, in his perfect poise 
and well-balanced personality, in his sharp analytic 
intellect, in his instinct for schematic systematization 
and elaboration, in his comprehensive, all-sided view 
of problems, in his scholarly sincerity, in his com- 
bination of speculativeness and empiricism, of theo- 
retical and practical interest, he is the second Kant 
in the history of philosopliy. There is a still more 
interesting comparison. As Kant endeavored to clear 



JOHANN FRIEDRICH HERBART 201 

away all the one-sided dogmatic views of preceding 
metaphysics by the standard of his analytic epistem- 
ology and to establish in their place a new system of 
philosophy, upon the unshakable basis of the a priori 
categories of knowledge, so Herbart tried the same in 
the field of pedagogy, using his analytical psychology 
as the dissecting knife for the " vulgar " theories of 
his forerunners and the basis of his own ' ' scientific ' ' 
pedagogy. ' * The a priori possibility of all the activi- 
ties of the human mind '* shows him the only means 
of promoting the aims and removing the hindrances 
of education. All the educational ideals, theories, 
and practices, however beautiful and ingenious they 
sound, must be judged by this standard. If Kant^s 
philosophy is the critical philosophy, Herbart 's peda- 
gogy is the critical pedagogy. And if Kant, coming 
after Rousseau, succeeded in opening a new era in 
the schoolmen 's philosophy, so Herbart was an epoch- 
maker in the history of the schoolmen's pedagogy. 
But the name of the father of modern education will 
ever remain Pestalozzi, as the honor of the creator 
of modern tendencies of thought will be conferred 
upon Rousseau instead of Kant, if one looks at things 
from a broad, human, cultural standpoint rather 
than the narrow, academic one. 

Kant saw the necessity and possibility of scientific 
pedagogy, and had an unrealized dream of establish- 
ing a pedagogical system as the culmination of all 
the philosophical branches. This, Herbart worked at 
with painstaking effort, and thought he succeeded 
14 



202 MODERN EDUCATORS 

in it. Professor Rein is justified in saying that, 
" without doubt, Herbart, among all German philos- 
oi:)hers, made the greatest and most thorough investi- 
gation in this field. . . . He is the only one among 
the original thinkers of modern times who not merely 
casually touched, but directed the whole force of his 
theoretical and practical knowledge upon the question 
of pedagogy " (16: p. 462). Kant recommends, in 
his pedagogical lectures, the establishment of experi- 
mental schools for the advancement of educational 
art. Herbart realized the idea by organizing a peda- 
gogical seminary with a practice school in connec- 
tion with the University of Konigsberg, where he was 
invited in 1809 to fill the chair once occupied by 
Kant, and long desired by him. And to-day we see, 
thanks to this impetus, similar institutes established 
in many German universities. 

A German writer has called Pestalozzi the Kant of 
pedagogy and didactics, but to me no one seems bet- 
ter to suit the name than our philosopher-pedagogist. 
But we must not overlook an important difference 
which exists between the two philosophers: Kant 
stood more under the influence of natural science, 
while Herbart remained more under the influence of 
the classics. So the former is the more naturalistic, 
and the latter more humanistic, in his educational 
standpoint. This may be partly due to the difference 
of the times in which they lived, partly to that of 
their training, and also of their personalities. While 
they resemble each other in their intellectuality, there 



JOHANN PRIEDRICH HERBART 203 

seems to be more iron in Kant and more warmth in 
Herbart; certainly the latter had more appreciation 
of the a^stlietic aspect of things than the former. 

No education without instruction, no instruction 
without education, is the keynote of the whole Her- 
bartian pedagogy. From Locke down, the essential 
trend of educational reforms has been in the direction 
of exalting discipline and training, natural growth 
and experience, thrusting instruction into the back- 
ground. Not knowledge, not intellect, but the vir- 
tues, character, will, heart, man himself, was the 
fundamental aim of education, and instruction was 
accounted as only contributing to it in a secondary 
or tertiary way. Herbart agreed with his predeces- 
sors in seeing the main purpose of education in the 
formation of character; but, according to him, in- 
struction was the chief means for attaining this end, 
and consequently it was the essential business of edu- 
cators. To him, ^' to present the whole treasure of 
accumulated research in a concentrated form to the 
youthful generation is the highest service which man- 
kind at any period of his existence can render to his 
successors " (9: p. 81). And herein lies the inspira- 
tion of the teacher's calling. However, he regained 
this importance for the function of instruction by giv- 
ing it a higher meaning than the mere imparting of 
miscellaneous knowledge. In order to see this we must 
go a little into his psychology, upon which his peda- 
gogy rests. 

The new departure which Herbart made in psy- 



204 MODERN EDUCATORS 

chology was that he dispersed the ghost of '' facul- 
ties," which had been attributed to an entity called 
soul, and substituted in its place the manifold images 
or representations as the phenomena of our psychic 
life. He argues : " It is an error indeed to look upon 
the human soul as an aggregate of all sorts of facul- 
ties " (8 : p. 15). And to reduce these to one and the 
same active principle is to make the theory still worse. 
" The soul is a simple essence, not merely without 
parts, but also without any kind of multiplicity in 
its quality " (11: p. 119). 

" The soul has no innate dispositions (Anlage), nor 
faculties {Vermogen) whatever, either for the pur- 
pose of receiving or for the purpose of producing. It 
is, therefore, no tabula rasa in the sense that impres- 
sions foreign to itself may be made upon it; more- 
over, in the sense indicated by Leibnitz, it is not a 
substance which includes within itself original self- 
activity. It has originally neither concepts nor feel- 
ings nor desires. It knows nothing of itself and 
nothing of other things; also in it lie no forms of 
perception and thought, no laws of willing and action, 
and not even a remote predisposition to any of these ' ' 
(11: p. 120). 

As to the metaphysical question, ' ' What is the soul in 
its essence? " Herbart endeavors to give no answer. 
It ^' is totally unknown, and will forever remain so. 
It is as little an object of speculative as of empirical 
psychology " (11: p. 120). 

Now, soul is entirely deprived of all content, (luali- 



JOHANN FRIEDRICH HERBART 205 

ties, attributes, and tendencies, and reduced to a sort 
of mathematical point, or something like the Kantian 
Ding-an-sich. It is a " Real/' he says. But its 
entity is equal to nonentity. A way is opened when 
he tells that there is one original power possessed by 
the soul. This is the reaction to external stimuli, or 
the power of " self-preservation," as he calls it. By 
this reaction representations are produced, and when 
once produced they stay in the mind, ready to be 
reproduced and develop through the process of mu- 
tual interaction into concepts and higher forms of 
thought. 

Thus, representations or ideas constitute the pri- 
mary content of soul. However, from the contrast or 
counter reactions of these ideas there result secondary 
states, which are what we call feelings or volitions. 
These three phases of our soul life — ideation, feeling, 
and volition—'^ are constantly to be found in com- 
bination,'' and they are together " in a constant 
change." The '' heart {Gemilth), however, has its 
source in the mind— in other words, feeling and desir- 
ing are conditions, and for the most part changeable 
conditions of concepts" (11: p. 26). The funda- 
mental points in all this are that a soul is what it 
itself builds up by experience, namely, by its relation 
to external stimuli ; that ideas constitute the primary 
and constant part of the soul, while feeling and voli- 
tion are only the outcome of the various relations 
between these ideas. 

Now the ultimate aim of education is the formation 



206 MODERN EDUCATORS 

of character. Character means the stability of will, 
or " the inner freedom " of will. When will always 
chooses the good by its self-determination it is said 
to have freedom. This means that each individual 
act of willing works in harmony with the already 
existing system of wills; and in the full attainment 
of this freedom or harmony lies the perfection of will 
or character ; morality means our striving toward this 
perfection. But, according to Herbart, the source of 
will is the idea. ' ' The circle of thought contains the 
store of that which by degrees can mount by the steps 
of interest to desire, and then by means of action 
to volition. . . . The whole inner activity, indeed, 
has its abode in the circle of thought. Here is found 
the initiative life, the primal energy.; . . . Clearness, 
association, system, and method must rule here " (9: 
p. 213) in order to secure a free, easy, energetic, and 
steady activity of the will; and since meagerness of 
the store of ideas means meagerness of interests, of 
motives, consequently, of the directions of will activ- 
ity, we must endeavor to enrich the circle of thought 
as well as to make it clear and coherent. The help 
we extend to this enrichment and systematization of 
ideas we call instruction. Our ideas come from two 
main sources— experience of the objective world and 
human intercourse. From the former develops the 
'^ empirical,'* the '' speculative," and the aesthetic 
interests; from the latter the '' sympathetic," the 
social, and the religious interests. These are six divi- 
sions of interest, according to Herbart. All of these 



JOHANN FRIEDRICH HERBART 207 

interests must be aroused and harmoniously devel- 
oped in order that the child may have a rich and 
coherent circle of thought. This is called, in the Her- 
bartian terminology, '' many-sidedness of interest." 
Many-sided interest prevents one from falling into 
egoism ; it provides the basis for, social bond and co- 
operation. By having a wide range of motives, and 
consequently a balance of the will, one will find in it 
a " protection in the future from the yoke of the 
desires and the passions. It will arm him against 
fortune's changes, and will make life worth living, 
even when a cruel fate has robbed him of his dearest. 
It will guard him from all errors which spring from 
idleness, and will provide him with a new calling 
when the old has been closed to him. It will raise 
him to the level from which earthly possessions 
and the successes of worldly efforts seem but acci- 
dents which cannot touch the true self, for above 
them stands the moral character, grand and free " 
(6: p. 96). Thus, as the end of education is char- 
acter, so the direct aim of instruction is many- 
sided interest. Consequently, instruction should be, 
first of all, manifold, and not one-sided. '' Every 
avenue of approach should be thrown open." The 
apperceptive capacity of the child should be moved 
in all directions. Of course we must accommodate 
the subject-matter to the great variety of endowments 
the child presents. ' ' Yet while instruction must thus 
be differentiated, it should not be made so special as 
to cultivate only the more prominent gifts; otherwise 



208 MODERN EDUCATORS 

the pupil's less vigorous mental faculties would be 
wholly neglected and perhaps suppressed " (8 : p. 42). 

Instruction should always follow the gradual prog- 
ress of interest in the pupil. A new apperception, 
a new interest is invariably to be grafted upon the 
already existing ones. '' When interest has not been 
aroused, compulsory acquisition is not only worthless, 
leading as it does to soulless, mechanical activity, 
but positively injurious, because it vitiates the pupils' 
mental aptitude and disposition " (8: p. 290). Not 
mastery of a certain skill or thoroughness in any one 
of the branches of knowledge, but fondness for these, 
accompanied by the desire to further them, is the 
main thing, especially in the early stages of instruc- 
tion. ' ' Interest means self -activity . The demand for 
a many-sided interest is, therefore, a demand for a 
many-sided self -activity " (8: p. 60). Herbart con- 
demns the ^' a priori assumptions that certain sub- 
jects must be taught." '' The intellectual self -activ- 
ity of the pupil," this is the end of " educative 
instruction." " This, and not mere knowledge, any 
more than utility, determines the point of view with 
regard to the instruction material " (8: p. 97). 

Attention is another aspect of interest. It ' ' may be 
})roadly defined as an attitude of mind in which there 
is readiness to form new ideas " (8: p. 62). There 
are two kinds of attention— voluntary or forced, and 
involuntary or spontaneous. The latter is ' ' far more 
desirable and fruitful," for '' forced attention does 
not suffice for instruction, even though it may be had 



JOHANN FRIEDRICH HERBART 209 

through disciplinary measures " (8: p. 135). The in- 
voluntary attention is again divided into the primitive 
and the apperceiving. " Primitive or original atten- 
tion depends primarily upon the strength of the sense 
impressions/' and the pleasure it affords (8: p. 64). 
This signifies the same thing as momentary interest. 
We must secure this in order to render instruction 
effective. '^ Tediousness is the greatest sin of instruc- 
tion'^ (5: p. 82). Apperceiving attention feeds on 
the primitive attention; it is the outcome of culti- 
vated or permanent interest, and the expression of 
our whole accumulated experience of the world and 
life. 

The function of instruction is, we have been told, 
to systematize the child's thought as well as to enrich 
it. We are not only to pile up the materials in his 
mind, but to construct them into a solid, planful 
structure. Facts need a methodical treatment, Her- 
bart claims, in order that they may ever enlarge the 
scope of our mental activity. This process of method- 
ical treatment is called by the Herbartians '' the for- 
mal steps of instruction. '* The perception or the 
idea of a thing must be first made clear, then asso- 
ciated with the perception or the idea of other things ; 
thirdly, systematized with the whole previous experi- 
ence or stock of knowledge ; and, lastly, made a living 
knowledge by practical application. 

In the process of instruction we may distinguish 
three modes or phases— the purely presentative, the 
analytic, and the synthetic instruction. The purely 



210 MODERN EDUCATORS 

presentative or descrij^tive method aims to produce 
results akin to an extension of the pupils' range of 
actual experience. Although it can only be applied 
to concrete matters, '' skill in this direction is the 
surest means of securing interest." Free oral pres- 
entation produces an effect that reading never does. 
To secure success in this, ' ' a cultivated style of speak- 
ing," " adaptation of the vocabulary employed, both 
to the subject-matter and to the intelligence of the pu- 
pils, and adjustment of the phraseology to the pupils' 
stage of culture " and careful preparation are essen- 
tial requisites. The aim '' should be to make the 
pupil realize events and objects as vividly as if they 
were actually present to his eye and ear " (8: pp. 
107-108). But without previous experience, or at 
least a sufficient basis for imaginative construction on 
the part of pupils, this would naturally fail. There- 
fore we must endeavor to enlarge his apperceptive 
mass by the aid of frequent excursions, by plentiful 
exhibitions of objects and pictures, by giving the child 
a wide acquaintance with sense material. 

Children in their natural experience or learning 
gather only a crude mass of facts, resulting often in 
a chaotic apprehension. These facts, therefore, must 
be worked over and rearranged in their minds in order 
to become true knowledge. The instruction which 
aims at this is called '' Analytic " instruction. It is 
" awakening attention and reflection through instruc- 
tion, or exercise in thinking "; it is a sort of mental 
cud of the whole stock of children 's direct and repro- 



JOHANN FRIEDRICH HERBART 211 

duced experience. It consists in pointing out the 
main facts of a given whole, their relations, the size, 
form, weight, number, attributes, uses of things, in 
comparing, discriminating, generalizing, and classi- 
fying them; and it may further involve the consid- 
eration of natural or artificial origin and development 
of things. 

^' Analytic instruction '' must depend on the mate- 
rials already existing in the pupil's mind, and is thus 
limited by them. These are, of course, insufficient for 
the rearing of his mental structure which may serve 
his varied life-purposes. Something new and strange 
must be brought in from outside his immediate en- 
vironment. This is the function of " synthetic in- 
struction." The quarry from which the materials 
come is coextensive with the cultural history of the 
human race, including the whole stock of literature 
and science. Synthetic instruction is thus cultural 
instruction per sc. It ^' builds with its own stones," 
the teacher himself determining directly the sequence 
and grouping of parts of the lesson. Although inter- 
est partly depends on the native capacity and inclina- 
tion of the pupils, yet the choice of the subject-matter 
and the manner of its presentation can to a large 
extent determine it. '' Synthetic instruction must 
offer subjects capable of arousing lasting and spon- 
taneously radiating interest. . . . The first place be- 
longs rather to those studies which appeal to the mind 
in a variety of ways and are capable of stimulating 
each pupil according to his individuality. For such 



212 MODERN EDUCATORS 

subjects ample time must be allowed; they must be 
made the object of prolonged diligent effort " (8: p. 
127). For the treatment of the subject the general 
order is, of course, " the easy before the difficult, or, 
more specifically, that which prepares the way, before 
that which cannot be firmly grasped without prelim- 
inary knowledge ' ' ; things naturally must be brought 
down within the reach of the pupils' understanding, 
yet not made so easy as to exclude effort on his part. 
But Herbart shows his genuine pedagogic insight 
in warning against a too strict adherence to logical 
sequence, or a too exacting insistence upon perfect 
mastery in preliminary knowledge, as '' equivalent to 
scaring away interest." He says: 

'' To make the road so level as to do away entirely 
with the necessity for occasional leaps, means to pro- 
vide for the convenience of the teacher rather than 
for that of the pupils. The young love to climb and 
jump ; they do not take kindly to an absolutely level 
path" (8: p. 128). 

Eager as he was in his advocacy of methodical in- 
struction, yet he did not overlook the greater impor- 
tance of the pupil's interest in the content of subject- 
matter taught. After calling cursory reading the 
worst method of beginning the study of languages, 
he adds: 

'' Even cursory reading, however, produces good 
results under one condition, namely, the existence of 
a lively interest in the contents " (8 : p. 132). 



JOHANN FRIEDRICH HERBART 213 

As Herbart's desire and attempt to bring about 
sequence and order in instruction became schematized 
by some of his followers, the most prominent of whom 
are Ziller and Rein, into " formal steps," so his 
endeavor to introduce unity and harmony into edu- 
cation was attenuated by them into the doctrines of 
' ' culture stages ' ' and ' ' concentration center. ' ' The 
doctrine of '' culture stages " is stated by Ziller as 
follows : 

' ' The mental development of the child corresponds, 
in general, to the chief phases in the development of 
mankind. It therefore cannot be better furthered 
than when he receives his mental nourishment from 
the general development of culture as it is found in 
literature and history. Every pupil .should accord- 
ingly pass successively through each of the chief 
epochs of the general mental development of man- 
kind suitable to his stage of development. The mate- 
rial of instruction, therefore, should be drawn from 
the thought material of that stage of historical devel- 
opment in culture which runs parallel with the pres- 
ent mental state of the pupil " (6: p. 122). 

In accordance with this theory, Ziller selected the 
following topics which, he thought, W'Ould fit respec- 
tively the developmental stages of children in the 
eight years of the school course: (1) Epic fairy tales, 
(2) Robinson Crusoe, (3) History of the Patriarchs, 
(4) Judges in Israel, (5) Kings in Israel, (6) Life 
of Christ, (7) History of the Apostles, (8) History of 
the Reformation. And parallel to the history of the 



214 MODERN EDUCATORS 

Israelites, literature taken from German history was 
to be taught. Not being satisfied with this artificial 
matching and grading, Ziller wanted further to make 
tlie above-mentioned materials the center of all in- 
struction, connecting with them the teacliing not only 
of language, but of arithmetic, drawing, geography, 
and science. With Professor Rein this idea was more 
reasonably modified. He also uses these historical- 
humanistic studies as the " concentration center," but 
other materials are only to be coordinated with them 
so far as possible, not entirely absorbed into them. 

Instruction, although it is the main part of educa- 
tion, must be assisted by two other functions in order 
to be effective ; namely, government and discipline. 
The function of government is to keep the pupils in 
order, in quiet, and in abeyance to the will of the 
teacher. It is mere, though necessary, preparation 
for instruction and discipline. It concerns itself only 
with the present of the pupil, while instruction and 
discipline look to his future. Government involves 
keeping children in constant occupation suitable to 
their age and individuality, supervision, with numer- 
ous commands and prohibitions, and certain rewards 
and punishments. 

Instruction aims at the formation of character 
through the formation of a system of sound judg- 
ments and clear insights, which motivate the good- 
will. It is discipline that completes the work of 
instruction by the habituation of the will in the 
direction of virtue. Its task is to harmonize and 



JOIIANN FRIEDRICH IIERBART 215 

unify the manifold acts of will by subordinating sin- 
gle momentary volitions to the moral ego which is 
gradually to be formed in the mind of the child. As 
the object of instruction is to give moral illumination 
to the will, so that of discipline is to develop ' ' moral 
strength of character." Discipline is distinguished 
from government by its being chiefly concerned with 
inner volition, while the latter mainly deals with out- 
ward action. So it is not applied, like government, 
by enforcement, but consists in reciprocal personal 
reaction between the teacher and the pupil. Without 
the voluntary reaction or willing cooperation on the 
part of the latter, discipline is futile. Certain per- 
sonal attitudes, sympathy and helpfulness on the part 
of the teacher, confidence and dependence on the part 
of the pupil, are the first requisites of training. 

Thus we see that Herbart brought about, in his own 
way, a reconciliation between the exclusive resort to 
formal discipline in contempt of instruction, by means 
of which the source of rich and refined motives is 
supplied, and the over-exaltation of impartment of 
knowledge to the neglect of training, by which alone 
it becomes power and life— giving also a due impor- 
tance to the preliminary and supporting function of 
supervision or government. In instruction itself, also, 
the two opposite tendencies, the humanistic and the 
empirical, find a higher unity. The humanistic school 
claimed the knowledge stored in the history and lit- 
erature of the race alone as worth imparting, while 
the empirical asserted that the knowledge coming 



216 MODERN EDUCATORS 

from immediate personal experience alone deserves 
the name. Herbart takes individual experience as the 
leading-string of instruction, and unites with it the 
experience of the whole human race, incorporated in 
culture and science. 

In regard to the relation of the state and the home 
as educational agencies, again, he gives a harmony to 
the one-sided views held by his predecessors by mak- 
ing clear the particular positions occupied by both. 
The state requires from its citizens their social and 
professional efficiency. Hence it gives the best pos- 
sible education to them to produce this efficiency. 
Thus, the advancement of technical knowledge and 
the multiplication of specialized scholarships are well 
secured in the hand of the state. But it is not con- 
cerned so much with the particular needs, nor the 
proportional development of the individual as an in- 
dividual, as with his serviceability to itself in his par- 
ticular line or sphere of work. ' ' The state applies its 
test to what can be tested, to the outward side of con- 
duct and of knowledge. It does not penetrate the 
inner life. Teachers in public schools cannot pene- 
trate much farther ; they, too, are more concerned with 
the sum total of the knowledge imparted by them, 
than with the individual and the way in which he 
relates his knowledge to himself " (8: p. 318). 

'^ The family, on the other hand, interested as it is 
in the individual, must take the pedagogical point of 
view, according to which every human being is to 
realize tlie best of which he is capable. It is essen- 



JOHANN FRIEDRICH HERBART 217 

tial that families should grasp this distinction and 
accordingly, concern themselves not with the great- 
ness of particular achievements, but with the totality 
of culture possible for the individual " (8: pp. 289- 
290). As to moral discipline, the very nature of 
family organism requires it to go deeper than the 
state does or ever can. ' ' It is obvious, therefore, that 
moral education will always remain essentially a home 
task, and that the institutions of the state are to be 
resorted to for educative purposes only with a view 
to supplementing the home." However, the family 
as it is has its drawbacks. Its life " is very often 
too busy, too full of care, or too noisy for that rigor 
which is undeniably required both for instruction and 
for morality. Luxury and want alike harbor dangers 
for youth. Consequently families lean on the state 
for support more than they ought " (8: p. 318). 

So Herbart advocates that, " as much as possible, 
education must return to the family, ' ' provided ' ' that 
sound pedagogical views have been arrived at in the 
home and that the place is not occupied by absurd 
whims or half knowledge " (8: pp. 319-320). For 
the present the work of education should be carried 
on by the harmonious cooperation of the state and 
the family, the school and the home. Private institu- 
tions have their special place as the best experimental 
station for the art of education, when provided with 
a picked set of pupils and teachers and well-regulated 
environment. 

" With the exception of Pestalozzi," says Spiel- 
15 



218 MODERN EDUCATORS 

mann, '' Herbart has exercised the most important 
influence upon pedagogy." Pestalozzi gave the first 
impetus to " psycliologizing " the process of educa- 
tion; Ilerbart, continuing this movement, tried to 
make a science of it, and became the father of the 
great school of pedagogy which bears his name, 
and is represented by such renowned pedagogues as 
Mager, Striimpell, Story, Waitz, von Sallwiirk, Ziller, 
Vogt, Willmann, Rein, Just, Dorffell, Frolich, Leutz, 
Frieck, and Helm. No academic pedagogy probably 
has exerted such a wide and systematic influence 
upon the field of education, especially of school in- 
struction, as the Herbartian school has. No such 
technicality and doctrination has, with the probable 
exception of the Froebelian pedagogy among kinder- 
gartners, ever so ruled the thought and practice of 
school teachers. Yet it has received at the same time 
a strong and healthy opposition, chiefly directed 
against its overdone methodization and schematiza- 
tion carried on by his disciples rather than by Her- 
bart himself. '' Return to Pestalozzi," is the cry we 
have been hearing in some quarters from German 
pedagogues. But though for the impartial learner no 
system of pedagogy is absolutely binding authority, 
yet at the same time every original thinker is to be 
our teacher, guide, and benefactor. When we go 
back directly to him we find him speaking with the 
living power of his personal experience and insight; 
it is the blind followers who kill him by idolizing him. 
Herbart indeed advocated making a scientific peda- 



JOIIANN PRIEDRICH HERBART 219 

gogy the basis of the practice of education. Yet he 
admits that '' long will it be before we have it, longer 
still before we can expect it from teachers." More- 
over, even when this is reached, " it can never be a 
substitute for observation of the pupil; the individ- 
ual can only be discovered, not deduced" (9: p. 
83). As to his own system of pedagogy, it certainly 
" affords an opportunity for estimating the breadth 
and the sphere of education and the vastness of prob- 
lems lying before it " (9: p. 77), and also for seeing 
the exceeding complexity of every apparently simple 
matter in it. He and his school unquestionably deserve 
an important place in the history of pedagogy. But 
w^e must remember that psychology, which is, accord- 
ing to him, the foundation of pedagogy, has made 
progress by leaps and bounds since his day ; that the 
social conditions and needs also have seen a consider- 
able change. Therefore, to those who are disposed to 
linger at the starting point of the great road opened 
by him, instead of marching on along it with the same 
eagerness and pioneering spirit which inspired Her- 
bart himself, we offer the words which he wrote to 
Herr von Steiger in reference to '^ the most abiding 
of all the rules I send you " : ' ' Remember, you must 
not be in the least slavishly bound by them; I mean 
them rather as hints " (9; p. 8). 



220 MODERN EDUCATORS 



REFERENCES 

1. AcHELis, Thomas. Die Wandlurrgen der Padagogik im 

19. Jahrhundert. Cronbach, Berlin, 1901. 204 
pages. 

2. Adams, John. The Herbartian Psychology Applied to 

Education. Being a series of essays applying the 
psychology of Johann Friedrich Herbart. Ibister, 
London, 1897. 279 pages. 

3. BoHMEL, Otto. Der principielle Gegensatz in den 

padagogisehen Anschauungen Kant's und Herbart's. 
Koch, Marburg, 1891. 31 pages. 

4. De Garmo, Charles. Herbart and the Herbartians. 

Scribner, New York, 1895. 268 pages. 

5. Engel, Moriz Emil. Grundsatze der Erziehung und 

des Unterrichts nach Herbart, Ziller und A. Diester- 
weg. Weidmann, Berlin, 1887. 176 pages. 

6. Felkin, Henry M. and Mrs. E. An Introduction to 

Herbart's Science and Practice of Education. 
Heath & Co., Boston, 1900. 193 pages. 

7. Heman, Friedrich. Geschichte der neueren Padagogik. 

Zickfeldt, Osterwieck, 1904. 436 pages. 

8. Herbart, Johann Friedrich. Outlines of Educational 

Doctrines. Translated by A. F. Lange, annotated 
by C. De Garmo. Macmillan Co., London and 
New York, 1901. 334 pages. 

9. The Science of Education. Translated by Felkin. 

Sonnenschein, London, 1892. 268 pages. 

10. The Application of Psychology to the Science of 

Education. Translated and edited by B. C. Mulliner. 
Scribner, New York, 1898. 231 pages. 

11. Text-book in Psychology. Translated by M. K. 

Smith. Appleton, New York, 1894. 200 pages. 
(International Education Series.) 



JOHANN FRIEDRICH HERBART 221 

12. A. B. C. of Sense Perception and Minor Pedagogical 

Works, Translated with introduction, notes, and 
commentary by W. J. Eckoff. Apple ton. New York, 
1896. 288 pages. (International Education Series.) 

13. Letters and Lectures on Education. Translated 

and edited by H. M. and Mrs. E. Felkin. Sonnen- 
schein, London, 190L 295 pages. 

14. Lang, Ossian, H. Outlines of Herbart's Pedagogics; 

with Biographical Introduction. Kellogg, New 
York, 1894. 72 pages. 

15. Rein, Georg Wilhelm. Outlines of Pedagogics. Trans- 

lated by C. C. and J. J. Van Liew. Sonnenschein, 
London, 1893. 199 pages. 

16. Encyklopadisches Handbuch der Padagogik. 8 

vols. Beyer, Langensalza, 1895-1906. Vol. III. 

17. Sallw^urk, Ernst von. Gesinnungsunterricht und 

Kulturgeschichte ; zu padagogischen Kritik. Beyer, 
Langensalza, 1887. 103 pages. 

18. Scherer, Heinrich. Die Padagogik in ihrer Entwick- 

lung im Zusammenhange mit dem Kultur- und 
Geistesleben und ihrem Einfluss auf die Gestaltung 
des Erziehungs- und Bildungswesens. Vol. II. Die 
Padagogik als Wissenschaft von Pestalozzi bis zur 
Gegenwart. 3 parts. Brandstetter, Leipzig, 1897- 
1908. 

19. ScHMiD, Karl Adolf. Geschichte der Erziehung vom 

Anfang an bis auf unsere Zeit. 5 vols. Cotta, 
Stuttgart, 1884-1902. Vol. IV. Part II. 

20. Spielmann, C. Christl\n. Die Meister der Padagogik 

nach ihren Leben, ihren Werken und ihrer Bedeutung. 
Heufer, Neuwied, 1904-1905. 365 pages. Part VI. 

21. Strumpell, Ludwig H. Das System der Padagogik 

Herbart's. Part III. Padagogische Abhandlungen. 
Dichert, Leipzig, 1894. 



222 MODERN EDUCATORS 

22. WiGET, Theodor. Die formalen Stufen des Unterrichts ; 

cine Einfiihrung in die Schriften Zillers. Seventh 
edition. Rich, Chur., 1901. 117 pages. 

23. ZiEGLER, Theobald. Geschichte der Padagogik mit 

besonderer Riicksicht auf das hohere Unterrichts- 
wesen. Beck, Miinchen, 1895. 361 pages. 



CHAPTER X 

HERBERT SPENCER 
(1820-1903) 

Spencer introduces no new ideas into the history 
of pedagogy. His treatise is little more than a new 
version of the Rousseauean and Pestalozzian ideas. 
But foreign ideas, as such, seldom penetrate the Eng- 
lish soil, and the Anglo-Saxon mind naturally rebels 
against a man of Rousseau 's type. Thus the realistic, 
psychological tendencies in education which had been 
conquering the Continent needed their English trans- 
lator. He was found in the person of the greatest 
English philosopher of the nineteenth century. Wliat 
Rousseau grasped by the bold flight of his poetic 
genius, Spencer brought down to the earthly level by 
scientific evidence and arguments; what Pestalozzi 
uttered in the inspiration of his prophetic vision, 
Spencer reiterated in the words of common sense. 
Thus the Anglo-Saxon world listened to the messages 
of the two great continental prophets through the 
voice of the apostle of her own production. So it 
came about that the pedagogical stream which had 
taken its rise in the island empire through Bacon 

223 



224 MODERN EDUCATORS 

and Locke, and flowed out into the Continent, becom- 
ing ever deeper and deeper, now streamed back to its 
original source. 

Nevertheless, Spencer was by no means an ex- 
pounder of foreign thoughts in the ordinary sense of 
the term ; he was the last man for that. ' ' He was at 
no time a great reader. The influence of other think- 
ers did not come to him through books, but their ideas 
were picked up by the w^ayside, so to speak, or rather 
imbibed from the air in which they floated, Avithout 
his being aware of it " (5: p. 210). He w^as one of 
the most independent and original thinkers; he was 
so aloof and isolated from the preceding and current 
history of thought that his critics account this the 
weakness of his philosophy in general. Yet if he was 
independent of the history of thought embodied in 
books, he was not and could not be so of its living 
current. We see a new widening of scientific out- 
look and a great upheaval of the realistic spirit in 
the first half of the nineteenth century, of which Eng- 
land was again, as three centuries before, the har- 
binger. This new Zeitgeist of the nineteenth-century 
England was provided with a mouthpiece in this in- 
dependent, '' fully self -governed and habitually self- 
sufficing," self-educated philosopher. He it was that 
in the nineteenth-century England wielded tlie first 
axe to break down her most obstinate conservatism in 
the field of education. True, he was not the only one 
to be called for this work, but his blows were the 
boldest and the most systematic. 



HERBERT SPENCER 225 

Spencer's first attack was directed against the for- 
tress of the exalted " classics " or " cultural stud- 
ies. ' ' The positive aspect of this was the claim for a 
higher, nay, the highest place for science in the school 
curriculum. This battle had, indeed, been waged 
since the time of Bacon, but the development of the 
new sciences had only made the English schools close 
their gates tighter. " Science was tabooed in most 
schools and frowned upon in innumerable pulpits." 
'' The attitude of the universities toward natural sci- 
ence has been that of contemptuous nonrecognition. 
College authorities have long resisted, either actively 
or passively, the making of physiology, chemistry, 
geology, etc., subjects of examination " (9: p. 375). 
Here came Spencer, the nonconformist of noncon- 
formists, and poured cold water over the long-estab- 
lished dignity of '' the education of the gentleman," 
saying : 

' ' ]\Ien dress their children 's minds as they do their 
bodies, in the prevailing fashion. ' As the Orinoco 
Indian puts on his paint before leaving his hut, not 
with a view to any direct benefit, but because he 
would be ashamed to be seen without ; so a boy 's drill- 
ing in Latin and Greek is insisted upon, not because 
of their intrinsic value, but that he may not be dis- 
graced by being found ignorant of them— that he 
may have ' the education of a gentleman ' — the badge 
marking a certain social position, and bringing a con- 
sequent respect. . . . Not what knowledge is of most 
real worth, is the consideration ; but what will bring 
most applause, honor, respect— what will most con- 



226 MODERN EDUCATORS 

duce to social position and influence— what will be 
most imposing. As, through life, not what we are, 
but what we shall be thought, is the question, so in 
education the question is not the intrinsic value of 
knowledge so much as its extrinsic effects on others ' ' 
(7: pp. 23-26). 

Thus Spencer proposes the determination of the com- 
parative, intrinsic value of different kinds of studies 
as the matter of first importance in putting educa- 
tion on a surer foundation. ' ' This is, ' ' he says, ' ' the 
question of questions, which it is high time we dis- 
cussed in some methodical way." " What is the use 
of it? " was the question repeatedly raised by every 
educational reformer from Bacon down. But Spen- 
cer would settle the question once for all in the light 
of a standard w^iich should be rationallj^ established 
as universal and necessary. "What, then, is this 
standard ? 

Any value of an object which is intrinsic is deter- 
mined by its bearing upon our life. Life — this is the 
ultimate test to which all must appeal either directly 
or indirectly. Anything which does not serve our 
individual and social life has no value whatever. 
'' How to live " is the fundamental problem for us 
all. Every special problem of mankind is comprised 
in this one problem. 

'^ In what way to treat the body; in wliat way to 
treat the mind; in what way to manage our affairs; 
in what w^ay to bring up a family; in what way to 
behave as a citizen; in what way to utilize all the 



HERBERT SPENCER 227 

sources of happiness which Nature supplies — how to 
use all our faculties to the greatest advantage of 
ourselves and others — how to live completely? And 
this being the greatest thing needful for us to learn, 
is by consequence the great thing which education 
has to teach. To prepare us for complete living is 
the function which education has to discharge ; and 
the only rational mode of judging of any educational 
course is to judge in what degree it discharges such 
function " (7: pp. 30-31). 

Human life is constituted of various activities which 
can be classified into: 

''1. Those activities which directly minister to self- 
preservation ; 2. Those which by securing necessaries 
of life indirectly minister to self-preservation ; 3. 
Those which have for their end the rearing and dis- 
cipline of offspring; 4. Those which are involved in 
the maintenance of proper social and political rela- 
tions; 5. Those miscellaneous activities which make 
up the leisure part of life, devoted to the gratification 
of the tastes and feelings " (7: p. 32). 

The above stand, considered from the biological and 
anthropological point of view, " in something like 
their true order of subordination." 

Spencer takes each of these departments of human 
activities one by one and tries to convince us of how 
necessary is the knowledge of hygiene and physiology 
for our self-preservation; nothing less than that of 
mathematics, physics, chemistry, biology, and social 
sciences for our economic activities; that of physiol- 



228 MODERN EDUCATORS 

ogy, hygiene, psychology, anthropology, and peda- 
gogy for the performance of the parental function; 
that of sociology, which, according to him, must 
comprise a study of the laws of social organism, as 
well as its description in its political, economical, 
religious, social, and cultural growth, for the fulfil- 
ment of the duties of citizenship. Even in the 
domain of our aesthetic life, he thinks, a systema- 
tized knowledge of facts and laws concerning natural 
and psychic worlds will increase the power of both 
esthetic production and enjoyment. 

Then Spencer turns to the value of the sciences for 
the training of the mental powers. First of all he 
refers us to '' the beautiful economy of Nature," 
according to which '' everywhere throughout creation 
we find faculties developed through the performance 
of those functions which it is their office to perform ; 
not through the performance of artificial exercises 
devised to fit them for these functions " (7: pp. 84- 
85). So we may be certain a priori, he thinks, that 
also in education the acquirement of the valuable 
facts must involve the best mental exercise. Then he 
shows us, taking up different sciences one by one, 
how, through the systematic pursuance of the facts 
and laws of Nature and life which they present, we 
are better trained in our power of memory, of judg- 
ment, of reasoning, in our moral character, and even 
in our religious sentiments, than through linguistic 
studies, which largely consist, in fact, of ^' lexicons 
and grammars." 



HERBERT SPENCER 229 

Spencer's next plea is for a freer education, as 
opposed to the prevailing one of coercion. The 
nineteenth century was the age for the triumph of 
individual freedom. The infallible authority of the 
Church, of monarchs, of the head of the family, were 
thrown down, one after another, through revolution 
and through development. Society became free and 
democratic in its every phase and department. Thus 
it was quite natural that the systematic revaluation 
of educational spirit and method, on the basis of 
changed conditions of society, should be reiterated by 
him in whom the individualism of the nineteenth cen- 
tury culminates in respect to personality as well as 
philosophy. Liberty for the nature of the educated, 
for his spontaneous activities and enjoyments, en- 
couragement of his self-instruction and independent 
thinking; none of the unnecessary and harmful re- 
straints, authoritative commands and rote learning—' 
this must be the principle of reform toward ' ' modern 
modes of culture corresponding to our more liberal re- 
ligious and political institutions." Indeed, the above 
is nothing but the principle advocated so forcibly 
by Rousseau and Pestalozzi. The ice was already 
broken by them, and on the Continent, especially in 
Germany, their followers marched on far along the 
opened course. But England needed an apostle of 
her own before she would accept this gospel of psy- 
chological naturalism. And w^hat had appeared in 
Rousseau as educational Romanticism, and in Pesta- 
lozzi as educational Humanitarianism, took in Spen- 



230 MODERN EDUCATORS 

cer the form of what we might call educational Lib- 
eralism and Evolutionism. In his emotional motive, 
Spencer's theory is based on his political Liberalism; 
in his intellectual ground, on his conception of psy- 
chic and social evolution. He writes: 

" Thus, then, we are on the highway toward the 
doctrine, long ago enunciated by Pestalozzi, that alike 
in its order and in its methods, education must con- 
form to the natural process of mental evolution— that 
there is a certain sequence in which the faculties 
spontaneously develop, and a certain kind of knowl- 
edge which each requires during its development ; and 
tliat it is for us to ascertain this sequence and supply 
this knowledge " (7: p. 110). 

Success in every educational effort depends upon 
'' rendering our measures subservient to that spon- 
taneous unfolding which all minds go through in their 
progress to maturity" (7: p. 111). This natural 
sequence in the spontaneous unfolding of faculties 
Pestalozzi endeavored to find empirically in observ- 
ing the individual minds of children. Spencer, on 
the contrary, would search for it in the course of 
the race development. This idea of general paral- 
lelism between the development of the individual and 
the race had already been held by Rousseau and the 
Herbartians. But Spencer seems to be ignorant of 
this : he only cites Comte as having reached the same 
view, in believing '' that, rightly conducted, the edu- 
cation of the individual must have a certain corre- 
spondence with the evolution of the race." The 



HERBERT SPENCER 231 

fundamental principle of Spencerian education is to 
'' carry each child's mind through a process like that 
wliich the mind of humanity at large has gone 
through." The principle rests on two grounds: one 
is the law of hereditary transmission of acquired 
tendencies or qualities, and the other the necessary 
relationships, common to all ages, between the mind 
and its objects. From the former '' it follows that 
if there be an order in w^hich the human race has 
mastered its various kinds of knowledge, there wall 
arise in every child an aptitude to acquire these kinds 
of know^ledge in the same order. So that, even if the 
order were intrinsically indifferent, it w^ould facili- 
tate education to lead the individual mind through 
the steps traversed by the general mind." The latter 
teaches us that the order of racial development has 
not been intrinsically indifferent, but " was in its 
main outlines a necessary one "; that " as the mind 
of humanity, placed in the midst of the phenomena 
and striving to comprehend them, has, after endless 
comparisons, speculations, experiments, and theories, 
reached its present knowledge of each subject by a 
specific route, it may rationally be inferred that the 
relationship between the mind and phenomena is such 
as to prevent this knowledge from being reached in 
any other route ; and that, as each child 's mind stands 
in the same relationship to phenomena, they can be 
accessible to it only through the same route " ( 7 : 
p. 123). Thus, according to Spencer, anthropology 
or developmental sociology as well as psychology are 



232 MODERN EDUCATORS 

necessary bases for education, for lack of which our 
school curricula are burdened with useless learning. 
*' Humanity has progressed solely by self -instruc- 
tion," so we must develop ourselves also by self- 
education. This is the central plea of our self-made 
philosopher. He writes: 

" Those who have been brought up under the ordi- 
nary school drill, and have carried away with them 
the idea that education is practicable only in that 
style, will think it hopeless to make children their 
own teachers. If, however, they will call to mind that 
the all-important knowledge of surrounding objects 
which a child gets in its early years is got without 
help— if they will remember that the child is self- 
taught in the use of its mother tongue; if they will 
estimate the amount of that experience of life, that 
out-of-school wisdom, which every boy gatliers for 
himself; if they will mark the unusual intelligence 
of the uncared-for London gamin, as shown in all the 
directions in which his faculties have been tasked; 
if further, they will think how many minds have 
struggled up unaided not only through the mysteries 
of our irrationally planned curriculum, but through 
hosts of other obstacles besides— they will find it a not 
unreasonable conclusion, that if the subject be put 
before him in right order and right form, any pupil 
of ordinary capacity will surmount his successive dif- 
ficulties with but little assistance " (7: p. 125). 

Thus, his much-quoted phrase: 

*' Children should be led to make their own inves- 
tigations and to draw their own inferences. They 



IlErtBERT SPENCER 233 

should be told as little as possible, and induced to 
discover as much as possible " (7: p. 124). 

From this point of view the rejection of hasty and 
indiscriminate book instruction is simply a necessary 
consequence. 

Interest is to be the guide and criterion of all in- 
struction or culture. 

" A child's intellectual instincts are more trust- 
worthy than our reasonings. In respect to the know- 
ing faculties, we may confidentially trust in the gen- 
eral law, that under normal conditions, healthful 
action is pleasurable, while action that gives pain is 
not healthful " (7*: p. 127). 

The result of thus making education a process of 
self-instruction will, moreover, be to form a never- 
dying habit of progressive self-culture, to cultivate 
courage in attacking difficulties, patient concentra- 
tion of attention, perseverance through failure, to 
give a good temper, cheerfulness, and confidence, in- 
stead of a permanent moroseness, timidity, and even 
depression; to establish a friendly, trustful, and con- 
sequently influential relationship between the teacher 
and the pupil. 

Here we need not stop to point out how thorough- 
going a Rousseauean is Spencer in his view of intel- 
lectual training. He is equally, if not more so, in 
his conception of the fundamental principles of moral 
culture. Only the English Empiricist does not agree 

with the French Romanticist in believing in the orig- 
16 



234 MODERN EDUCATORS 

inal goodness or innocence of the child; nor can he 
idealize, with the Swiss enthusiast, the educational 
capability of parental love ; nor does he expect, with 
the German idealist-patriot, to be able to produce a 
new species of humanity out of the present imperfect 
society by the single instrument of a perfect system 
of education. According to him, ' ' no system of moral 
culture can forthwith make children altogether what 
they should be; . . . even were there a system that 
would do this, existing parents are too imperfect to 
carry it out ; and even could such a system be success- 
fully carried out, its results would be disastrously 
incongruous with the present state of society " ( 7 : 
p. 171). Progress of the social organism necessarily 
must be organic and evolutionary; the improvement 
of family discipline must go together with that of 
every other institution of society. - Yet this does not 
prevent us from '^ elaborating and recommending 
methods that are in advance of time." 

The human race has learned rightness or wrongness 
of conduct by its total consequences, immediate and 
remote. '' The happiness or misery caused by it are 
the ultimate standards by which all men judge of 
behavior " (7 : p. 174). So in the case of individuals, 
their moral insight can only be truly developed by 
their experiencing the full bearing of each particular 
line of conduct. " Proper conduct in life is much 
better guaranteed when the good and evil conse- 
quences of actions are rationally understood, than 
when they are merely believed on authority " (7: p. 



HERBERT SPENCER 235 

185). Tlie function of parents as " ministers and 
interpreters of Nature " is to see that nothing more 
nor less than the full weight of the true, natural con- 
sequences of their children 's conduct should be always 
experienced by them. 

''It is a vice of the common system of artificial 
rewards and punishments, long since noticed by the 
clear-sighted, that by substituting for the natural re- 
sults of misbehavior certain threatened tasks or casti- 
gations it produced a radically wrong standard of 
moral guidance. Having throughout infancy and 
boyhood always regarded parental or tutorial dis- 
pleasure as the result of a forbidden action, the youth 
has gained an established association of ideas between 
such action and such displeasure, as cause and effect ; 
and consequently, when parents and tutors have ab- 
dicated, and their displeasure is not to be feared, the 
restraint on a forbidden action is in great measure 
removed; the true restraints, the natural reactions, 
having yet to be learned by sad experience " (7: pp. 
185-186). 

In minor rules of moral training, too, Spencer fol- 
lows Rousseau. In his w^arning against the unwisdom 
of setting up a high standard for children, which 
invites the detrimental results of moral precosity; 
against the overregulation and constant admonition, 
which produces nothing but " hothouse virtue " and 
' ' a chronic domestic irritation " ; in his advocacy of 
a due authorit}^ maintained with decision of charac- 
ter and consistency of judgment, and the like, we 
have the reverberation from " Emile." 



236 MODERN EDUCATORS 

The aim of moral discipline, according to Spencer, 
is not so much to turn out an obedient, well-beliaved 
individual, as to produce '' a self-governing being," 
which democratic society most needs. As to its agent, 
he, without raising a question, intrusts the task solely 
to the parents. At the same time, however, he Avants 
to impress upon them the extreme complexity and 
difficulty of the task, and the consequent need of 
knowledge and self -culture, as well as vigilance, pa- 
tience, and ingenuity. 

Spencer was one among the prophets who pro- 
claimed the morality of hygiene, which now has be- 
come a commonplace matter. He writes: 

** Few seem conscious that there is such a thing as 
a physical morality. . . . Disorders entailed by dis- 
obedience to Nature's dictates they regard simply as 
grievances, not as the effects of a conduct more or 
less flagitious. Though the evil consequences inflicted 
on their dependents and on future generations are 
often as great as those caused by crime ; yet they do 
not think themselves in any degree criminal. . . . 
The fact is that all breaches of the laws of health are 
physical sins. When this is generally seen, then, and 
perhaps not till then, will the physical training of 
the young receive all the attention it deserves " (7: 
pp. 282-283). 

We should never forget that man is an animal. ^ * The 
first requisite to success in life is to be a good animal, 
and to be a nation of good animals is the first condi- 
tion to national prosperity " (7: p. 222). 



HERBERT SPENCER 237 

In regard to the physical care of the child, Spencer 
is, unlike his older compatriot Locke, an Epicurean, 
the scientific Epicurean, if you please. He preaches 
the gospel of high feeding, of ample clothing, and 
opposes strongly overeducation. The fundamental 
principle is that '' in proportion as growth and or- 
ganization are incomplete, much must be given and 
little required." Spencer calls our present system of 
overeducation vicious — " vicious, as giving knowl- 
edge that will soon be forgotten ; vicious, as produc- 
ing a disgust for knowledge; vicious, as neglecting 
that organization of knowledge w^iich is more impor- 
tant than its acquisition; vicious, as weakening or 
destroying that energy without which a trained in- 
tellect is useless; vicious, as entailing that ill-health 
for which even success would not compensate, and 
which makes failure doubly bitter " (7: p. 278). 

As to physical exercises, Spencer hated gymnastics. 
It is merely ' ' better than nothing " ; it is the prac- 
tice originated by warfare, w^hich has ^' remained 
congruous only with the militant type of society "; 
it is simply the introduction of one artificiality to 
remedy the evils of another; namely, the suppression 
of free, spontaneous play. It being formal, and neces- 
sarily much less varied than plays and sports, taxes 
heavily special parts of the body, and thus causes a 
quicker fatigue and disproportionate development; 
being forced, it lacks the spontaneous interest and 
accompanying pleasures, which serve as the most 
healthful tonic for recreation and invigoration of 



238 MODERN EDUCATORS 

our physical organism ; and when carried to excess it 
may develop an abnormal power of muscles only at 
the cost of constitutional deterioration. 

Spencer was probably among the first who advo- 
cated the essential need of free outdoor games for 
girls as much as for boys, saying : ' ' Whoever forbids 
them forbids the divinely appointed means of phys- 
ical development " (7: p. 258). He asks: 

'' Why this astonishing difference? Is it that the 
constitution of a girl differs so entirely from that of 
a boy as not to need these active exercises? Is it 
tliat a girl has none of the promptings to vociferous 
play by which boys are impelled ? Or is it that, while 
in boys these promptings are to be regarded as secur- 
ing that bodily activity without which there cannot be 
adequate development, their sisters' nature has been 
given to them for no purpose whatever — unless it be 
for the vexations of schoolmistresses " (7: p. 254). 

He thinks that the fear that unrestrained plays form 
unladylike habits and manners is groundless. 

^' For if the sportive activity allowed to boys docs 
not prevent them from growing up into gentlemen, 
why should a like sportive activity allowed to girls 
prevent them from growing up into ladies? . . . 
How absurd is the supposition that the womanly 
instincts would not assert themselves but for the 
rigorous discipline of schoolmistresses!" (7: pp. 
255-256). 

Spencer, with his " constitutional disregard of au- 
thority," and with his personal experience of self- 



HERBERT SPENCER 239 

culture, is systematically opposed to the policy of 
state education. In his mind, systematic school edu- 
cation was synonymous with artificial culture and 
coercive discipline. The most serious defect of it, 
however, is its necessary tendency toward overintel- 
lectualization. And the current, undue exaltation of 
academic training is based on the overestimation of 
the role of intellect at the cost of our emotional 
nature. 

*' Sensations and emotions are parts of conscious- 
ness, and so far from being its minor components, 
they are its major components. . . . Like respirations 
and winkings of the eyes, their unceasingness makes 
us oblivious of them. Yet every instant emotions 
are present. No movement is made but what is pre- 
ceded by a prompting feeling as well as a prompting 
thought. . . . The emotions are master, the intellect 
is the servant. The guidance of our acts through per- 
ception and reason has for its end the satisfaction 
of feelings, which at once prompt the acts and yield 
the energy for performance of the acts" (10: pp. 
36-38). 

But overemphasis on academic training, which is 
necessarily artificial and intellectual, also tends to the 
neglect of emotional elements even in art, whose 
proper domain is emotion. " Not the arousing of 
certain sentiments, but the communication of certain 
ideas is thus represented as the poet's office." " It 
is not enough for a picture to gratify the aesthetic 
perceptions or raise pleasurable emotions " (10: pp. 



240 MODERN EDUCATORS 

44-45). The drama or music is valued on the basis 
of its serviceability to moral instruction or intellectual 
enlightenment, while the primary and all-sufficient 
purpose of art is pleasure. 

From this dislike of academic education, his oppo- 
sition to compulsory universalizing of this form of 
training by the power of authority is only natural. 
His plea is for an educational individualism, that 
each member of society should be ' ' left to do his best 
for himself and children." It rests upon his two 
fundamental conceptions in regard to the social or- 
ganism. First, that the ' ' social organism grows ' ' ; 
it is not artificially formed. Secondly, that the law 
of its growth is a progressive individualization. If 
his argument is now behind the times, it is not with- 
out much historical interest for us. For he is the 
best representative of that educational conservatism 
which has long withstood, in Great Britain and Amer- 
ica, the modern tide of state education which started 
from Germany. IMoreover, it is still a strong voice 
deserving attention as a warning against the dangers 
and defects of state education. The contention of the 
state educationists, as Spencer understands, is that 
parents, and especially those whose children most 
need instructing, lack knowledge and judgment in 
the matter of education. But Spencer thinks that 
the implication that " the interest and judgment of 
a government are insufficient security " is " a very 
questionable assumption." The government's inter- 
est, according to him, would necessarily tend to con- 



HERBERT SPENCER 241 

servatism, and likewise the school-teacher's interest, 
while a true education must always be a revolutionary 
force of society—" always fitting men for higher 
things, and unfitting them for things as they are " 
(9: p. 373). 

The state educationists ignore the educational sig- 
nificance of the natural relationships between parent 
and children. " In these strong affections and mu- 
tual dependencies observers believed they saw an 
admirably arranged chain of influences, calculated to 
secure the mental and physical development of suc- 
cessive generations; and in the simplicity of their 
faith had concluded that these divinely appointed 
means were fully sufficient for this purpose." But, 
according to them, " this combination of affections 
and interests was not provided for such a purpose, or 
what is the same thing, that it has no purpose at all. 
And so, in default of any natural provision for sup- 
plying the exigency, legislators exhibit to us the de- 
sign and specification for a state machine, made up of 
masters, ushers, inspectors, and councils, to be worked 
by a due proportion of taxes, and to be plentifully 
supplied with raw material, in the shape of little 
boys and girls, out of which it is to grind a popula- 
tion of well-trained men and women, who shall be 
' useful members of the community ' " (9: pp. 366- 
367). They forget that " educational systems, like 
political and other institutions, are generally as good 
as the state of human nature permits," and that no 
hasty reform in education, which is not coordinated 



242 MODERN EDUCATORS 

with that of other departments of life and the general 
elevation of the whole social organism, can succeed. 
Any attempt at uniformatization, at the present stage 
of progress, of educational system by an authoritative 
hand would bring more harm than benefit. For 
' ' were we in possession of the true method, divergence 
from it would, of course, be prejudicial ; but the true 
method having to be found, the efforts of numerous 
independent seekers carrying out their researches in 
different directions constitute a better agency for find- 
ing it than any that could be devised '' (7: p. 101). 

Moreover, the use and function of government is, 
according to Spencer, only negative. ' ' To the bad, 
it is essential ; to the good, not. It is the check which 
national wickedness makes to itself, and exists only to 
the same degree." So the extension of government 
authority or interference is rather a retrogression of 
society. '' As civilization advances does the govern- 
ment decay," and ought to decay (9: p. 25). 

Therefore, he concludes, let the spread of enlighten- 
ment be free and spontaneous. '' If supply and de- 
mand are allowed free play in the intellectual sphere 
as in the economic sphere, . . . education must con- 
duce to social stability as well as to the other bene- 
fits. For if those of the lower ranks are left to get 
culture for their children as best they may, just as 
they are left to get food and clothing for them, it 
must follow that the children of the superior will be 
advantaged : the thrifty parents, the energetic, and 
those with a high sense of responsibility will buy 



HERBERT SPENCER 243 

education for their children to a greater extent than 
will the improvident and the idle. And if character 
is inherited, then the average result must be that the 
children of the superior will prosper and increase 
more than the children of the inferior. There will 
be a multiplication of the fittest instead of a multi- 
plication of the unfittest " (10: pp. 92-93). 

Spencer's treatise on '' Education: Intellectual, 
Moral, and Physical, ' ' in which most of his pedagog- 
ical views are given, though a mere collection of 
occasional magazine articles, is nevertheless a work 
into which he put his heart and soul. When it ap- 
peared in 1860, in book form, it carried his fame for 
the first time into the wide region of the world; it 
has been translated into thirteen languages; in Eng- 
land and America it has been used as a text-book, 
forming until recently an important basis of popular 
pedagogic ideas. Probably no educational treatise 
written in English has exerted a wider influence than 
Spencer's, and in spite of its obvious one-sidedness, 
it is certainly one of the greatest works which has 
appeared in the pedagogic world on Anglo-Saxon soil. 

REFERENCES 

1. CoMPAYRE, Jules Gabriel. History of Pedagogy. 

Translated, with an introduction, notes, and an index, 
by W. H. Payne. Heath & Co., Boston, 1903. 598 
pages. 

2. Herbert Spencer et PEducation Scientifique. Dela- 

plane, Paris, 1901. 116 pages. 



244 MODERN EDUCATORS 

3. Duncan, David. Life and Letters of Herbert Spencer. 

Appleton, New York, 1908. 2 vols. 

4. Gaupp, Otto. Herbert Spencer. Frommann, Stutt- 

gart, 1897. 160 pages. (Frommann 's Klassiker der 
Philosophic.) 

5. RoYCE, JosiAH. Herbert Spencer, an Estimate and a 

Review by Josiah Royce; together with a chapter of 
personal reminiscences by James Collier. Fox, 
Duffield & Co., New York, 1904. 234 pages. 

6. Quick, Robert Hebert. Essays on Educational Re- 

formers. Appleton, New York, 1890. 560 pages. 
The same (International Education Series), 1903. 
568 pages. 

7. Spencer, Herbert. Education : Intellectual, Moral, and 

Physical. Appleton, New York, 1900. 301 pages. 

8. Philosophy of Style. Appleton, New York, 1901. 

55 pages. 

9. Social Statistics. Appleton, New York. 1882. 523 

pages. 

10. Facts and Comments. Apj^leton, New York, 1902. 

292 pages. 

11. : An Autobiography. Appleton, New York, 1904. 

2 vols. 

12. Herbert Spencer. A Symposium by Harris, Cook, 

Sutton, Winship, Rose. Proceedings of National 
Education Association, 1904. pp. 214-231. 



CHAPTER XI 

GEORG WILHELM FRIEDRICH HEGEL 
(1770-1831) 

Hegel never actually wrote or lectured on edu- 
cation as such, although, according to Rosenkranz, 
he intended to write what he significantly called 
" Staatspddagogik.'^ This slowly matured genius, 
whose interest was speculative more than practical, 
died too young to fulfill this design. He had no 
pedagogic impulse such as is seen in Fichte or Her- 
bart. He was to the end essentially a learner rather 
than a teaclier, notwithstanding the fact that his 
whole life was spent in educational work of various 
kinds. Nevertheless, he could not help but be touched 
by the intense pedagogical spirit of his age. The 
collection of his ideas on the problem of education, 
drawn from scattered sources, was published in 1853 
by one of his disciples, G. Thaulow. The collabora- 
tion of them into a system on the basis of his philos- 
ophy was made by his most faithful follower, K. 
Rosenkranz, whose Avork, " Pedagogy as a System," 
has had until recently a considerable influence in the 
educational world. 

245 



246 MODERN EDUCATOUS 

Hegel was born the son of a government official 
and brought up in a home which was in " direct and 
varied relation with many persons of high official 
rank." He did not, like Pestalozzi, share the lot of 
the common herd. Nor did he taste such liardships 
of fate as did Fichte. He lived, as a child, as a uni- 
versity student, as a family tutor, as a school man, 
as a university professor, ever in the air of officialdom 
and aristocracy. 

Moreover, we are told that youth had l)ut a short 
duration for him. In his student days at Tiibingen 
he gained the nickname of " the old man." Rous- 
seau had once charmed the young Hegel, as he did 
every youth of his time; Schelling had fascinated 
him ; Fichte had inspired him with enthusiasm ; but 
Hegel outgrew quickly and abandoned all these ro- 
mantic tendencies. Heinrich Hotho, one of his pupils, 
writes in his recollections: 

'^ He was bitter against the demagogues who were 
ever seeking ' new things ' in statecraft. Against the 
caprice of personal opinion, subjective fancy, arbi- 
trary passion, he set himself, seeking to do away with 
these from youth up, and to put in their place— to 
do away by putting in their place— a just apprecia- 
tion of the real, the lawful, the substantial. The 
senses, sentiments, impulses, wishes, and will were to 
be brought into free harmony with the necessary and 
rational, and their accord made habitual " (3: p. 98). 

Most geniuses are " youth, intensified, and pro- 
longed," but Hegel shows his genius in maturity of 



GEORG WILHELM FRIEDRICH HEGEL 247 

insight and judgment. Not the fire of prophetic 
spirit, not the flashes of poetic intuitions, but a pro- 
portioned completeness of Catholicism and classicism 
constituted the type of his mental greatness. 

Solger, visiting Hegel at the beginning of his Ber- 
lin career, writes to Tieck: *' I was curious to see 
what impression the good Hegel would make here. 
No one talks of him, for he is quiet and busy " (3: 
p. 78). Yes, " quiet and busy "—this characterizes 
his mental as well as public life. Nothing like rev- 
elation, inspiration, sudden intuition, but only a 
long, painstaking, methodical reasoning brought him 
truths. Not only each of his thoughts, but also each 
of his phrases and words he determined by laborious 
weighing and balancing. He despised the mere ex- 
pression of immediate feelings as a pseudo-philosophy, 
smacking of the Romantic school. For him, " phi- 
losophy was to express ' with colorless words ' {mit 
dilrren Wort en) the clear, crystalline outlines of 
thought— the cool judgment of the spirit " (3 : p. 39). 

Thus, according to his own characterization of the 
four traditional classifications of temperament, he be- 
longs preeminently to the phlegmatic. His mind is 
objective, with little subjectivity; more historical than 
prophetic, more discursive than intuitive, more in- 
clined to systematization than reformation, more con- 
servative than destructive. 

This is Hegel. And in him Germany found a great 
counteracting agency against the sweeping movement 
of educational reform, engendered by the romantic 



248 MODERN EDUCATORS 

and revolutionary spirit of the age. In this regard 
Hegel reminds us of Herbart. The dawn of the new 
Germany needed such prophetic men as Pestalozzi 
and Fichte, but her pacification and solidarity re- 
quired a more constructive genius. Pestalozzi and 
Fichte stood as the champions of National Education. 
Hegel, " the official philosopher," as he is often 
called, would become the advocate of " State Peda- 
gogy." 

Hegel's philosophy has been called the Objective 
Absolute Idealism as opposed to the Subjective Ab- 
solute Idealism of Fichte, and the Logical Pantheism 
as opposed to the Alogical Pantheism of Schopen- 
hauer. The logically minded Hegel saw methodical 
progressions of thought going on everywhere in the 
life of nature and humanity. The universal Essence 
or the Absolute was to him the mind, the intellect, 
or the reason. Every existence or phenomenon is the 
manifestation of the eternal unfolding of the Divine 
Reason. Everything in the world is '' becoming," is 
in the process of evolution; this ^' becoming " is the 
only actuality and life. This eternally progressive 
world-process is the education of universal beings by 
and through the Logos or the self -education of God. 
Man takes part in the world-process of education, and 
realizes in himself the end of this evolution by be- 
coming a free, self-conscious spirit — God attaining in 
him the consciousness of Himself. 

The human share and endeavor in the universal 
'' becoming," or the evolution of the Logos in man- 



GEORG WILHELM PRIEDRICH HEGEL .249 

kind, constitutes the history of the race. Human his- 
tory is, in general, the process of the liberation of 
spirit or reason from its bondage — from all external 
and debasing powers. By these not only political, 
social, and family despotism are meant, but also one's 
own passions, natural desires, inclinations, willfulness, 
arbitrariness, etc. For freedom does not consist in 
licentiousness ; it is the unbounded self-activity of the 
Spirit according to its own law. This law is given by 
reason. Thus freedom can be regarded as lawful 
action according to rational insight. Therefore the 
universal realization of self-conscious reason and free- 
dom of the spiritual nature is the teleology of human 
history. Education from this standpoint means the 
progressive perfection of humanity from a naive, un- 
conscious, primitive state of spirit or reason through 
the hard discipline of slavery and bondage to the 
consciousness and exercise of its freedom. 

To share in this progressive perfection of the race 
and contribute to its promotion is the destiny of in- 
dividuals. The connection between the culture of the 
race and the development of the individual is very 
close. The latter can only grow in the breast of the 
former. And the culmination of this close relation- 
ship between the whole and its part is the state. It 
is the most highly developed and compact form of 
society. History is the objectified, realized humanity, 
and its attainments are embodied in the institutional 
life of the state. The individual must take part in 

this life of the state and " live in the spirit of the 
17 



250 MODERN EDUCATORS 

nation.'* Tliis is the free relation of give and take. 
But the child cannot by himself enter into Ihe free 
mutual relation of give and take with, society. He is 
not only incapable of giving his part to society, but 
also of taking his share from it. Some one else must 
do this for him. To do this is the duty of parents 
and teachers, and the art of fulfilling this duty is 
education in its narrow sense. 

For Hegel the child is no angelic being. Innocence 
as such has no moral value, so far as it is ignorance 
of the bad and rests on the lack of desire by which 
the bad can take place. Nor does he recognize the 
morality of instincts and impulses. Moral freedom 
is won " through the stern strife against the na'ive 
subjectivity of life, against the immediateness of ar- 
bitrary desire and passion " (3: p 109). Childhood 
in itself has no value for Hegel. It is not as it was 
for Rousseau and Froebel, a state to be lived out, but 
a state to be outgrown. '' The child has a right to 
be educated,'' only because it has the destiny to be- 
come a man, and yet it is not and does not become 
so by mere natural development. 

'' Education is the art of making men moral. It 
regards man as natural, and points out how he may 
be born anew— how his first nature may be changed 
to a gecond spiritual nature " (3: p. 107). Morality 
means the mastery of reason over natural desires and 
inclinations. The child's undeveloped reason must 
be, at first, subjected to the developed reason, which 
is *' manifested in the will of liis parents, in the 



GEORG WILHEL]\[ FRIEDRICH HEGEL 251 

knowledge of his teachers, and in the surrounding 
world." His growing self must be set in the larger 
life of the whole, in which mature reason, mature 
will, mature morality are realized. 

*' Education may be defined as the visible, pro- 
gressive transcending of the negative or subjective. 
For the child, as the form of the potentiality of a 
moral individual, is a subjective and negative being. 
His becoming a man is the outgrowing this form ; 
and his education is the discipline or process by which 
this is done. To gain this positive and essential char- 
acter he first must be nourished at the breast of the 
universally moral; he must live as a stranger in the 
absolute institution of that morality; he must make 
more and more of it his own, and finally pass over 
into the universal spirit. It is evident from this that 
the effort to be virtuous, to obtain absolute morality 
through education, is not at all a striving after an 
individual and separate morality. Indeed, such an 
effort after a positive morality peculiarly one's own, 
would be vain and in itself impossible " (3: p. 107). 

The educator, then, is no longer to be a mere jealous 
guardian of Nature's own developing and educating 
process, but he is the conscious delegate of the mature 
generation or the state, whose office is to unite and 
subordinate the child to the general culture already 
acquired by them in the course of evolution. 

Hegel's pedagogical ideas are best seen in his de- 
lineation of the ' ' ages of man, ' ' which Thaulow calls 
*' an epitome of all pedagogy." 

^' The development of the normal human being is 
made up of a series of processes. These change in ac- 



252 MODERN EDUCATORS 

cordance with the changing relation of the individual 
to the race and to the external world " (3: p. 118). 

He divides childhood into three— including the fetus, 
four— stages. But, since the " child before birth has 
no peculiar individuality, none related in a particular 
way to particular objects," there is no education 
proper here. "At birth it passes from vegetative to 
animal existence. ' ' He has the most finely organized, 
infinitely adaptable body of all animals. The growth 
is not only quantitative, but qualitative. And to- 
gether with its physical growth goes the mental de- 
velopment, this first stage of infant life being " the 
time in which the human being learns most. Now 
the child is made a confidant of all the senses. The 
outer world becomes a reality to him. He advances 
from sensation to perception. ... He projects his 
world about himself" (3: pp. 119-120). "The 
transition stage from infancy to boyhood has the 
following characteristics: The child's activity is di- 
rected more and more upon the outer world ; and 
along with his sense of the reality of the outer world 
he begins to be a real person, and to feel himself as 
such. This feeling is joined with the practical tend- 
ency to make all sorts of experiments upon his sur- 
roundings. For this practical activity, the child is 
fitted by the coming of his teeth, by his learning to 
stand, walk, and speak " (3: pp. 120-121). Stand- 
ing is the first requirement by the exercise of voli- 
tion. But " a still freer relation to the outer world 



GEORG WILHELM FRIEDRICII HEGEL 253 

is attained by man through his power of walking." 
The development of speech, on the other hand, en- 
ables him to grasp things in generalized concepts. 
It also leads him to the consciousness of his own con- 
stant and total subject— to the '' comprehension of his 
ego." The conscious independence of self from the 
nonself now dawns. " This dawning independence 
first expresses itself in play with material objects." 
Hegel, however, does not like to linger long here, and 
hastens to the next stage, boyhood, which constitutes 
' ' the passage of the child from play to serious study. ' ' 

*' In this transition stage children begin to be full 
of curiosity. They especially delight in stories. They 
seek rare and strange ideas. Above all is the awaken- 
ing feeling that they are not yet what they are to be, 
and the ardent wish to become like the grown-up peo- 
ple about them. Out of this springs the child's de- 
sire to imitate " (3: p. 121). 

Now the child must be taught. This ' ' feeling of dis- 
satisfaction with himself as he is," this " personal 
aspiration for full development," this '' wish to be 
' big ' " is '' the lever to be grasped by education." 
Therefore he condemns " the play education " which 
' ' meets children at a low level, ' ' which ' ' looks upon 
what is childish as already something of value in 
itself alone," which, '' attempting to make the in- 
completeness of childhood seem as something com- 
plete, and to make the children satisfied with it, 
casts down and tramples upon their own true better 



254 MODERN EDUCATORS 

wants. ... It puts both itself and what is serious 
into a puerile form, for which the children themselves 
feel contempt." It also " may have throughout the 
whole life of the pupil the baneful result of making 
him account everything cheap." Consequently, in 
learning, the child should not be left to its own in- 
clination or to anything like its spontaneous interest. 
'' What the boy is to learn must be set before him 
by authority and example." This is more according 
to his own nature, because his ideal at this stage does 
not appear in any general or abstract form, but is 
always represented by particular grown-up persons 
(3: pp. 121-122, 146-147). 

In the Fichtean pedagogy the boy was encouraged 
to self-active learning and thinking. But in the 
Hegelian pedagogy he is to be essentially receptive. 
To talk to the boy about original thinking or inde- 
pendent study is pure nonsense or tends to cultivate 
precocity. There is no instruction without prescrip- 
tion. ' ' Thought at the beginning, like the will, should 
be obedient " ; " willingness to yield one 's ideas is the 
first necessity for a learner. ' ' Thus : ' ' The tendency 
of youth to independent reflection or reasoning is 
one-sided. It should be indulged in as little as pos- 
sible. . . . For the chief end of education is to do 
away with these personal ideas, thoughts, reflections 
of youth, and their utterance. If the tendency toward 
self-reasoning be unchecked, there is no discipline or 
order in thought, no coherent and consequent knowl- 
edge " (3: pp. 140-141). Truth means objectivity. 



GEORG WILHELM FRIEDRICH HEGEL 255 

'' We often say that the understanding is developed 
by questioning, objecting, responding, etc. But, in 
truth, the mind is not developed by these ; it is only 
made superficial. The inner nature of a man is 
broadened by culture, and given him as a possession 
through self-restraint. Thought is enriched, and the 
mind vitalized, by silence" (3: p. 140). Silence 
(ixEfivdla), the word borrowed from Pythagoras, is the 
watchword of his instruction. Let us examine a little 
more fully the content of this word. To say that it 
is a deepened receptivity, an anticipatory interest, a 
worked-out objectiveness of mind, a self- forgetful ab- 
sorption in matters presented, a preparedness to 
react promptly in coming impressions, would be mere 
tautology. In other words, it is nothing else than the 
height of disinterested attention. Attention as under- 
stood by Hegel always involves voluntary control. 

'^ It demands effort when one wishes to grasp one 
object rather than another, to abstract himself from 
the thousand things moving through his mind, from 
his other interests, and even from his own person ; 
and repressing the tendency to hasty judgment, to 
give himself up wholly to the object " (3: p. 139). 

From the emphasis laid on the receptivity, on strict 
obedience to prescription, follows the emphasis upon 
order, regularity, and punctuality, as the first req- 
uisites in instruction. 

" There can be nothing worse than the evil of pro- 
crastination, of the putting off or shirking of work, 



256 MODERN EDUCATORS 

so that it is not pursued in all earnestness and in an 
unchangeable order. What is undertaken to be done 
at a set time should be accomplished as surely as the 
sun rises " (3: p. 138). 

With such an emphasis on receptivity one can eas- 
ily imagine how Hegel would regard the function of 
memory in learning. Although he thought it the most 
difficult point in psychology " to state exactly the 
place and significance of memory and its organic con- 
nection with thought," it was conceived as somehow 
opposed to subjectivity and reflection. " Consciously 
or unconsciously it is ever in use. ... It is busy fill- 
ing the soul with pure existences of outer space " 
(3: p. 135) ; '' it is mechanization of intelligence." 
Thus better memory in youth than in old age had, 
for Hegel, a certain teleological significance, and great 
minds have generally good memories. 

How^ever, even for Hegel, receptive learning is not 
the ultimate end, but is only propedeutic. 

''It is most important to lead the boy from the 
state of mere receptivity to that of i:)ersonal effort. 
For learning, which is mere taking in and remember- 
ing, is a very small part of education " (3: p. 144). 

Again : 

'' If learning were to be limited to a mere taking 
in, its results would be little better than writing upon 
the water, for it is not mere receiving, but the self- 
activity of grasping, and the power to put in use, that 
alone make knowledge our possession " (3: p. 141). 



GEORG WILHELM FRIEDRICH HEGEL 257 

As to the comparative importance of various 
branches of study, Hegel, as a champion of the New 
Humanism, opposed " the effort of making mathe- 
matical exercises the chief subject of education " (as 
the followers of Kant and Pestalozzi tried to do), 
considering it as ^' putting the mind upon a rack in 
order to evolve a perfect machine," as " making the 
mind empty and dull " (3: pp. 154-155). Against 
mere realistic study of natural science he exalted the 
value of the classics, considering the classical worlds 
as the second paradise of the human race, ' ' the para- 
dise of the spiritual man, who in his beautiful spon- 
taneity, freedom, depth, and joyousness stepped forth 
as a bridegroom from his chamber ' ' ; praising their 
masterpieces as '' the spiritual bath, the profane bap- 
tism, which gives the soul its earliest and most last- 
ing taste for things of beauty and of knowledge " 
(3: p. 157). 

As a means of cultivating abstract thinking— i. e., 
the power of understanding and reasoning— Hegel 
exalts again, in opposition to the preceding reform- 
ers, the study of logic and grammar, especially the 
grammar of the ancient languages. " The value of 
grammatical study," he asserts, " can scarcely be 
overestimated, for it forms the beginning of logical 
culture, a fact, however, that appears to be almost 
overlooked." He does not even hesitate to say that 
" careful grammatical study is one of the most noble 
and universal means of culture " (3: pp. 155-156). 
Various branches of philosophy, including the ele- 



258 MODERN EDUCATORS 

ments of religion, law, ethics, and psychology, are 
also prescribed for the gymnasium. Voice culture, 
public speaking, and the art of reading are mentioned 
as the important factors in education. Instruction in 
military drill is strongly advocated, as training alert- 
ness and exact ideo-motor reaction ; and consequently 
as " the most direct way of counteracting a lazy ab- 
sent-mindedness "; as the common ground of pursuit 
which ' ' best serves in leveling the partition wall that 
we build around our callings ' ' ; finally and preemi- 
nently as ^^ a reminder that every man, whatever his 
position, should be ready to defend his fatherland 
and his prince " (3: pp. 153-154). 

In the notion of the school, too, Hegel takes us back 
to the official and orthodox standpoint. It is simply 
preparation for the future life of the matured man. 
It is a mere organ through which the essentials of 
the acquired culture of the race are bequeathed to 
the new generation. Nothing more can or should be 
hoped from it. '' The sciences are not enlarged by 
the school. . . . Its knowledge is old property of the 
race. The work of the school has not its perfect 
end in itself. It lays but the foundation for the 
possibility of other work, that of real performance. 
. . . This preparation, this culture, can never be ' fin- 
ished.' Only a certain stage of it may be attained " 
(3: p. 147). 

School is not, like a Froebelian kindergarten, the 
children's own world. '' It educates the individual 
to participate in the world life "; it is " a secluded 



GEORG WILHELM FRIEDRICH IIEGEL 259 

inner preparation." This secluded period of mere 
apprenticeship not only lacks such organic relation to 
the larger life of the community or the warm, inti- 
mate air of family life, as the school in the Pesta- 
lozzian conception, but it lacks, unlike the people's 
school of Fichte's ideal, even its own completeness 
and independence. Hegel complacently admits that 
*' school life is dispassionate; it lacks the higher in- 
terest and earnestness of real life." But, just the 
same, it is the necessary and best preparation for life. 
He disapproves *' the maxim that children are early 
to be brought out into society. ' ' For ' ' men of world- 
wide fame have come from the narrow gate of the 
monastery; while, on the contrary, men who have 
grown up amid all the externalities of life unfold 
little fruit of inner worth " (3: pp. 147-149). 

If silence was the first requisite of learning, so 
obedience is that of morality. 

'' Obedience is the beginning of all wisdom. For 
by this the boy 's will is brought under the reasonable 
will imposed from without. The boy's will is not yet 
fledged, not truly independent and free. It has not 
learned to see the true, the objective, which makes for 
righteousness. If children are permitted to follow 
their impulses, if their self-will is unwisely yielded to, 
a most ugly habit of stubborn willfulness is formed " 
(3: p. 122). 

If our rationalistic philosopher does not put any 
faith in the natural impulses of the child, he makes 
equally little of the child 's individuality. He writes : 



260 MODERN EDUCATORS 

'' The peculiarities of man must not be rated too 
highly. The assertion that a teacher must carefully 
adjust himself to the individuality of his pupil so as 
to develop it— this assertion is empty. The teacher 
has no time for that. The individuality of the chil- 
dren is met in the family. But with the school begins 
a life in accord with a general order, after general 
rules for all. In school the spirit must be brought to 
lay aside the peculiarities, it must know and will the 
universal " (3: pp. 113-114). 



The individual experience or consciousness never 
wholly reveals the full content of the spiritual devel- 
opment or culture attained by the race or the uni- 
versal soul. The individual soul must, therefore, be 
fed by the content of the racial soul in order to attain 
its fullness. This, for Hegel, is done through the 
spoken word or writing. For him, not the senses or 
personal experience, as the empiricists claimed, but 
speech is the organ of learning. The letters of alpha- 
bets are the beginning of instruction proper, and, ' ' in 
general, speech is that airy element, that material 
immateriality by means of which the widening knowl- 
edge of the child is lifted more and more above the 
material and particular to the universal, and so to 
thought " (3: p. 123). This importance of instruc- 
tion through speech in education applies also to mo- 
rality and religion. Unless we teach, the boy, left to 
himself, would naturally gather erroneous and imper- 
fect notions of things and their relations. Therefore 
we need an early instruction in morality and religion. 



GEORG WILHELM FRIEDRICH HEGEL 261 

Against the Rousseauean idea that children " cannot 
understand them, and can gather from them only 
words for memory," Hegel asserts that they are 
" well understood by the child, by the boy, by the 
youth, in proportion to their age. ' ' Again : 

" Our whole life is nothing else than a growing 
comprehension of their range and significance. We 
see them exemplified in ever new cases, and our 
knowledge of their many-sided meanings develops. 
In fact, were we to put off the teaching of these moral 
ideas until a man is able to grasp their whole mean- 
ing, very few persons need be taught, and these not 
much before the end of life " (3: pp. 117-118). 

Hegel had to say with Pestalozzi that ' ' the feeling 
of immediate unity with the parents is the spiritual 
milk upon which the children thrive "; that '' the 
mother should be the chief influence in early educa- 
tion, for morality must be instilled into the child with 
his earliest perceptions "; that she is entitled to this 
by her love, which alone " flows with the whole cur- 
rent of her being." This '' is her highest earthly 
vocation, in which her natural character and her 
holiest calling are united " (3: pp. 145-146). Yet 
the parents are not the all-sufficient agents for the 
education of the child : the school must also have its 
part. As the parents have the duty and right of 
educating it as a member of the family, so the state 
has its duty and right of educating it as a member 
of society. 



262 MODERN EDUCATORS 

Now, to return to Hegel's delineation of the stages 
of man, the next stage is youth, wliich begins with 
puberty. Here '' the life of the race begins to stir 
within him and to seek satisfaction" (3: p. 124). 
The accompanying phenomena are the sudden growth 
and intensification of all his emotions and sentiments, 
—aesthetic, religious, and social. '' Particularly in 
youth do we feel ourselves related and in sympathy 
with all nature. We and things about us seem alive 
with one soul. We have a feeling of the world soul, 
of the oneness of spirit and nature, and of the spir- 
ituality of nature " (3: p. 150). 

As to personal relations, '' friendship like that of 
Achilles and Patroclus, or like that still closer friend- 
ship of Orestes and Pylades, is chiefly the privilege 
of youth " (3: p. 151). Youth, with its heightened 
sentimentality accompanied by the growing sense of 
the independence of self, is preeminently the age of 
subjective idealism. '' His ideal no longer appears to 
him, as to the boy, in some person, but is held by him 
as a universal, independent of such individuality. 
But to the youth this ideal still has a more or less 
subjective form, be it an ideal of love and friendship 
or one of general ambition " (3 : p. 124). In this lies 
the hope, inspiration, and power of the youth, but at 
the same time his weakness, discouragement, and de- 
spair. " The form of the ideal inspires the youth's 
energy so that he dreams that he is called and fitted 
to make the world over, or at least to turn it back to 
its right course. The young man's aspiring eye does 



GEORG WILIIELM FRIEDRICH HEGEL 263 

not see that tlie substantial universal contained in his 
ideal is already being evolved and realized in the 
world. What is realized by the universal seems to 
him far below the i^eal. Accordingly he feels that 
the world misunderstands both his ideal and himself. 
Thus the peace in which the child lived with the 
world is broken for the youth. Because of this turn- 
ing to the ideal the youth seems to have a nobler out- 
look and greater unselfisliness than the man, who is 
interested in his personal temporal affairs. But it 
must be remembered that the man is not bound up 
in his personal inclinations and subjective opinions, 
nor is he engaged solely in his personal advancement, 
but is one with the reasonable realities about him and 
is active in the world's behalf " (3: pp. 124-125). 
This is the stage of objective idealism. 

For Fichte, the creation of the ideal world by the 
power of the subjective will, and the reshaping of 
actuality according to it, was the noblest and highest 
destiny of man. But, according to Hegel, this is only 
a transient phase of the youth, which he must out- 
grow, if his growth is normal and unhindered. '' The 
youth should shed his horns and adjust himself, with 
his wishes and plans, to the actual and rational rela- 
tionships about him '' (3: p. 151). This transition 
from the subjective, abstract idealism of youth to the 
objective, concrete idealism of manhood is often a 
painful process, and in many cases leads one to an 
abject pessimism. '^ The later it is experienced the 
worse are its symptoms. ... He cannot conquer his 



264 MODERN EDUCATORS 

repugnance to the actual, and so finds himself rela- 
tively incapable, and may easily become so alto- 
gether." If, then, a man is not to succumb to the 
iron law of actuality, he must recognize its indepen- 
dence and rationality. '^ He must submit to the con- 
dition it imposes, and win from it, though it seems 
to say him nay, what he will " (3: p. 125). 

Thus the young man, finally coming down from his 
Utopian heaven, '' enters partnership with the world, 
and w^ins for himself adequate standing room." Al- 
though he gives up " his plan of making the w^orld 
anew," still '^ there is room for honorable, far-reach- 
ing, creative activity." For the objective world with 
which he now identifies himself is a life process, ever 
renewing itself and ever advancing. " The man's 
work is a part of this renewal and advancement. He 
grows more and more at one with his objective rela- 
tionships. He becomes accustomed to his work. . . . 
In time he becomes perfectly at home in his calling, 
and gives himself wholly to it. The essential in all 
the phases of his business becomes a matter of course. 
Only the individual, the nonessential, presents to him 
any novelty " (3: pp. 126-127). 

We might deduce from this that manhood is the 
age for specialization, for discovery and invention, 
and a man 's development should be in the progressive 
specialization of his vocation. But Hegel, whose eye 
is always directed to " the universal," stops short at 
its attainment. In the engagement in and the mas- 
tery of a vocation nmn completes himself, fully real- 



GEORG WILIIELM FRIEDRICH HEGEL 265 

izes his personality. " He is then at one with him- 
self, with his environment, with his sphere. He is 
universal, a whole " (3: p. 153). " The antithesis 
between the subject and its' object " being done 
away with, *' the interest in the latter is lost.'' 
'' Thus a man enters old age not only by the run- 
ning down of the vitality of his physical organism, 
but also by the crystallizing of the spiritual life into 
habits " (3: p. 127). But there is one virtue left to 
old age, that is ' ' to point out the way to the young ' ' 
by the lessons of his past experience, in the memory 
of which he now lives. 

The Hegelian pedagogy may be called the ortho- 
doxy of education. Like his philosophy, the cen- 
tral conception of which is expressed in the famous 
dictum, '' all that is rational is actual; all that is 
actual is rational," it is the strongest defense of ex- 
isting institutions ; it justifies all the traditional prin- 
ciples and methods of education and gives them a 
rational ground. As conservatism is the self-preserva- 
tion of every social institution, Hegelianism enjoyed 
the natural result of being welcomed by officialdom 
as the safest pedagogy to adopt. We need in society 
both the visionary idealist and the cold calculator, 
youthful enthusiasm and matured judgment. Al- 
though we must not forget that there often lies a great 
danger in the very soundness and all-roundness of 
opinions or precocious senility— a greater danger than 
the youthful one-sidedness — Hegel will remain as he 

was, a beneficial counteracting influence against the 
18 



266 MODERN EDUCATORS 

rashness and heat of a youthful age, a voice calling 
halt to look back to the already attained values, in the 
blind pursuit of the anticipated unknown quantity. 

REFERENCES 

1. Bryant, William Mackendree. Hegel's Educational 

Ideas. Werner School Book Co., New York, 1896. 
214 pages. 

2. Entner, Paul. Hegel's Ansiehten liber Erziehung im 

Zusammenhange mit seiner Philosophic dargestellt. 
XV. Jahres-Bericht der 1. stadtUchen Realschule. 
Hille, Dresden, 1905. 77 pages. 

3. Luqueer, Frederic Ludlow. Hegel as Educator. 

(Columbia University Dissertation). Macmillan Co., 
New York, 1896. 185 pages. 

4. Raumer, Karl von. Geschichte der Padagogik vom 

Wiederaufbliihen klassischer Studien bis auf unsere 
Zeit. 5 vols. Bertelsmann, Gutersloh, 1882-1897. 

5. Rein, Georg Wilhelm, editor. Encyklopadisches 

Handbuch der Padagogik. 8 vols. Beyer, Langen- 
salza, 1895-1906. Vol. III. 

6. Rosenkranz, Johann Karl Friedrich. Philosophy of 

Education. Translated by A. C. Brackett. Second 
edition, revised and enlarged. Appleton, New York, 
1903. 292 pages. 

7. ZiEGLER, Theobald. Geschichte der Padagogik mit 

besonderer Riicksicht auf das hohere Unterrichts- 
wesen. Beck, Miinchen, 1895. 361 pages. 



CHAPTER XII 

W. T. HARRIS AND G. STANLEY HALL 

William Torrey Harris 
(1835- ) 

In a country like America, where people have 
flocked from all corners of the world, each with his 
own ideas, beliefs, and ambitions, it is natural that 
the main concern of the leaders hitherto should have 
been the unity and solidarity of the social structure. 
How to produce self-governing yet law-abiding citi- 
zens in a free republic that has had no choice of the 
materials, seems to have been the educational problem 
from the legislative standpoint. There has probably 
been more necessity for counteracting new '^ isms '' 
and reforms than encouraging them. Just here the 
Hegelian pedagogy has an application, and it has, in 
fact, well-nigh penetrated, through Dr. Harris, into 
the great machinery of the public school. 

That Dr. Harris is a most faithful disciple of Hegel 
no one, including himself, will deny. If we are jus- 
tified in calling Spencer the English interpreter of 
Rousseauean pedagogy, we may call Dr. Harris the 
American apostle of Hegelian pedagogy. 

267 



268 MODERN EDUCATORS 

With the Hegelian philosophy of history on his 
banner Dr. Harris stands, amidst all skeptics and 
reactionaries against the present civilization, as its 
bold and even conventional advocate. This civiliza- 
tion is the highest actual manifestation of the world- 
spirit or Logos ; so every individual must be educated 
for and through it. Social institutions in which civ- 
ilization is incorporated are to be the chief agents 
of education. These social institutions are family, 
school, church, and state. But the education of the 
family is essentially physical and very limited; and, 
on the other hand, the educational influence of the 
state is exerted mainly through the school. So the 
school and the church are the main educational 
agencies, the former ministering to the secular and 
the latter to the religious needs. 

According to Dr. Harris, the function of the school is 
* ' to correlate the child with the civilization into which 
he is born.'^ '' The branches to be studied, and the 
extent to which they are studied, will be determined 
mainly by the demands of one's civilization. These 
will prescribe what is most useful to make the individ- 
ual acquainted with physical nature and with human 
nature so as to fit him as an individual to perform 
his duties in the several institutions — family, civil so- 
cietj', the state, and the church " (1: pp. 232-233). 
These also will determine what interests in the child 
should be cultivated and what interests be checked. 
To make the child's nature or its own spontaneous 
interest our guidance and standard is the suicide of 



AV. T. HARRIS AND G. STANLEY HALL 269 

education. For '' man reveals his true nature not as 
a child, but as a mature man and woman in the proc- 
ess of making world history. In the world history 
human nature is revealed in its height and depth " 
(14: p. 492). Naturally it follows that psychology 
should hold only a subordinate place for the art or 
science of education, and '' no philosophy of educa- 
tion is fundamental until it is based on sociology." 
Prescription is thus the great word in Dr. Harris's 
pedagogy, which he never tires of repeating. " The 
problem of prescription," he says, " is the profound- 
est and most important one in education, and without 
its solution we continually drift in the eddies of fruit- 
less experiments and waste the energies and possi- 
bilities of the rising generation " (5: p. 131). 

Of course Dr. Harris would not, in the face of the 
modern consciousness of individual freedom, advocate 
the tyranny of autocratic prescription. Here he met 
an antimony of civilization and consequently of edu- 
cation. 

'' When we reflect that prescription comes in from 
the side of realized reason, and consists in regulations 
found to be rational by the experience of mankind 
and embodied in the institutions of civilization, we 
must be convinced of the utter hopelessness of elimi- 
nating this element from life. . . . On the other hand, 
that self-activity or spontaneity, freedom of thought, 
the realization of directive intelligence in each and 
every individual— that this shall prevail more and 
more, is our deepest national conviction" (5: pp. 
141-142). 



270 MODERN EDUCATORS 

The antinomy is solved by Dr. Harris in the Hegelian 
way. At first these two ' ' are opposed, and mutually 
limit each other; where one begins the other ends." 
However, '' a mandate prescribed loses its external, 
mechanical side just as soon as its necessary ground 
is seen and comprehended ^' (5: p. 142). 

To speak of the child's instincts and natural pow- 
ers as if they were divine and all-sufficient in them- 
selves is allowed only in poetry. '' The child begins 
life a savage, ignorant of civilization." His im- 
pulses and caprices have to be subjected to the reason 
of the matured spirit, and his mind, empty of expe- 
rience, has to be filled with the wisdom of the race. 
' ' He must be taught everything : how to take care of 
his person, how to behave in the presence of others, 
how to do his work in the world and earn an honest 
living, how to observe and how to think. He has to 
learn the view of the world which civilization has 
attained." The good mother is she who is "' always 
alert to see to it that her child learns to inhibit— 
learns self-control or self-restraint." " Her chief 
work is inhibiting this or that, and educating the 
child into the practice of inhibiting constantly." 
For " out of one thousand things he may do, nine 
hundred and ninety-nine are improper to be done, 
and he must refuse to adopt them. Passing by all 
these, he must do only the one thing proper " (6: 
pp. 2-3). 

The child who, under this maternal discipline, has 
acquired " a bundle of personal habits and the use 



W. T. HARRIS AND G. STANLEY HALL 271 

of language to communicate ideas and receive them, ' ' 
is taken next to the hand of the school-teacher. His 
work is the continuation of that of the mother, and 
still preeminently is in ' ' the domain of prescription. ' ' 
" The special work of the school in the great process 
of education is that of giving the youth letters and 
civil manners " ( 6 : p . 4 ) . By ' ' civil manners, " ' ' the 
habits of acting according to the broad forms and 
conventionalities of rational existence ^' are meant. 
These habits are not born with the child, they are no 
innate inheritance that he brings with him into the 
world, but have to be acquired by him. So the edu- 
cator is not to minister to the nature of the child, 
but to repress it. With all his vigilance and self- 
control the teacher '' applies a firm, steady pressure 
to the material under his charge and molds it into 
form " (5: p. 128). 

Family life can teach many good habits to the child, 
but it cannot initiate him into social life quite as 
well as the school can. In order to become a social 
man he must be educated out of the " clan feeling " 
into civil relation. The school furnishes the best 
training for this: for its order '' presupposes inde- 
pendent interests combined with a common interest," 
and '' the school pupil must learn how to behave 
towards independent equals and towards those estab- 
lished in authority over him, not by nature, like his 
father and mother, but by civic ordinances appointed 
by his teachers '' (6: p. 4). Then the implicit ob- 
servance of order, without which no function of 



272 MODERN EDUCATORS 

school can be performed, inculcates such virtues as 
regularity, punctuality, and silence, the last men- 
tioned of which Dr. Harris thinks to be the basis 
for the culture of internality or reflection — the soil 
in which thought grows. Moreover, the systematic 
work required in the school cultivates many valu- 
able virtues. He says: '' Is there any better train- 
ing yet devised to educate youth into industry 
and its concomitants of sincerity, earnestness, sim- 
plicity, perseverance, patience, faithfulness, and re- 
liability, than the school method of requiring work 
in definite amounts and at definite times and of an 
approved quality? ^' (7: pp. 36-37). These mechan- 
ical or semimechanical duties which school life im- 
poses upon the pupils ^' constitute an elementary 
training in morals without which it is exceedingly 
difficult to build up any superstructure of moral char- 
acter whatever," and " are just Avhat is required to 
adapt the man to combine with his fellow man " ( 6 : 
p. 5). Moral education, therefore, must begin with 
these and " develop gradually out of this stage to- 
ward that of individual responsibility." 

In regard to the intellectual side of education, too. 
Dr. Harris gives his defense to its traditional form. 
In his view, learning proper is nothing else but the 
learning of books. The printed page is " an instru- 
mentality of intercommunication," the storehouse of 
race experience, the immortalized form of civiliza- 
tion. Thus training in letters naturally should 
form the center of instruction in the elementary 



W. T. HARRIS AND G. STANLEY HALL 273 

schooL Reading, writing, arithmetic, geography, his- 
tory, and grammar are the first studies of the school, 
which have the sanction of tradition and have stood 
the test of time. Natural science, vocal music, draw- 
ing, gymnastics, and the like may be introduced only 
as subordinate subjects. As to the disciplinary value 
of manual training Dr. Harris is skeptical. Its pos- 
sible use he recognizes only as a preparation for pro- 
ductive industry. However, for this purpose he does 
not see the wisdom or need of teaching it in the school. 
For, ^' if youth can be taught to bring their powers 
to bear on such subjects as arithmetic, grammar, his- 
tory, and literature, they certainly can with ease give 
their mind to any form of manual training or the 
work of external observation, because the greater in- 
cludes the less, and the studies of pure science are 
far more difficult to carry on than studies in applied 
science " (6 : p. 16). Thus he disposes of the question 
of pure ^' cultural " training versus '' practical " 
training by saying: '' Cultivate the humanities first, 
and afterwards the industrial faculties " (6: p. 20). 
Dr. Harris does not see the inherent worth of ele- 
mentary education nor glorify its function, as Pesta- 
lozzi or Froebel did. For him it is confessedly a 
'^ defective sort of education." Not only the knowl- 
edge it conveys is superficial and scanty, but the 
method of instruction and training is '' necessarily 
crude and inadequate.'' To speak of the spontaneous 
learning of the child is nonsense. In the language of 
Dr. Harris, everything must be ' ' served up "to him, 



274 MODERN EDUCATORS 

and this in a * ' fragmentary manner. ' ' This, however, 
is '' not an objectionable feature "; '' or if it is to 
be regarded as an evil, it is at least a necessary evil ' ' 
(5: pp. 144-145). It is in the second stage of intel- 
lectual culture that larger facts are given in a sys- 
tematic form and mutual correlation; that the pupil's 
own observation, reflection, and '' organic thinking " 
are encouraged and required. In a still higher stage 
— i. e., in the university — original investigation and 
independent thinking will have become its character- 
istic features. Dr. Harris fears that these higher 
forms of education, which he terms " the system of 
education by insight," would foster an excessive con- 
ceit of self unless it is built on the safe foundations 
of what he calls '* the education of authority," or 
'^ the education by means of memory." " There is 
this danger," he thinks, '' in the system of education 
by insight, if begun too early, that the individual 
tends to become so self-conceited with what he con- 
siders knowledge gotten by his own personal thought 
and research, that he drifts toward empty agnosticism 
with the casting overboard of all authority " (4: p. 
271). 

Dr. Harris rests his defense of conservatism on the 
ground of national psychology, saying that the peda- 
gogy of a people is to be based on the knowledge of 
their special aptitudes and ' ' the consequent necessity 
of inhibiting excesses." According to him, the peda- 
gogy emphasizing the pupil's self-activity is for the 
quiet, obedient, and knowledge-loving Germans, and 



AV. T. HARRIS AND G. STANLEY HALL 275 

not for those vigorous nationalities which '^ love ad- 
venture and the exercise of the will power far more 
than they love science. '* American children need 
rather the curbing and directing of self-activity, 
of which they have enough without encouragement. 
Consequently, discipline and drill, more than instruc- 
tion, forms the essential feature of their education. 
Recitation and the text-book method is more fit for 
them than the oral method; because the Anglo-Saxon 
teacher is to devote most of his time and energy to 
the government and discipline of his class, and, be- 
sides, recitation and the text-book method have many 
advantages peculiar to them. The advantages of the 
text-book method are enumerated as follows: 

" It has the advantage of making one independent 
of his teacher ; you can take your book wherever you 
please. You cannot do that with the great lecturer, 
neither can you question him as you can the book, nor 
can you select the time for hearing the great teacher 
talk as you can for reading the book. And it is true 
that nearly all the great teachers have embodied their 
ideas in books. The greatest danger of text-book edu- 
cation is verbatim, parrot-like recitation; but even 
here from the poorest text-book a great deal of knowl- 
edge can be gleaned. Then there is the alertness 
which in any large class will necessarily be engen- 
dered by an intelligent understanding and criticism 
of the results arrived at by different j^upils in dis- 
cussing a certain piece of work given in his own 
words. And then there is the advantage to be found 
in the fact that w^ith the text-book the child can be 
busy by itself" (4. p. 272). 



276 MODERN EDUCATORS 

As to an estimate of Dr. Harris's pedagogy little 
can be said beside what has been said in respect to 
that of Hegel; only Dr. Harris goes further than 
his master in outspoken advocacy of conservatism and 
conventionalism. As a successful administrator he 
did a great deal for the educational advancement of 
this country. His pedagogy also has been an influ- 
ential and acceptable one. But it seems to me that 
the America for which his pedagogy was formulated 
is fast passing. For the America of to-day, mere 
internal unity and solidarity is no longer the chief 
object of national aspiration. She who now is striv- 
ing for world supremacy in every direction, with 
reasonable hope and confidence, needs, and in fact 
already has, a new pedagogy. 



Granville Stanley Hall 

(1846- ) 

The new pedagogy which is gaining an increasing 
predominance is yet a movement rather than a sys- 
tem. Although it is now entering its productive and 
constructive stage, the light which it has hitherto 
thrown upon educational work has been largely in the 
way of prophecy, insight, and suggestions rather than 
a well-ordered philosophy, with rules and methods. 
From Comenius down every great renovation in our 
educational ideas and methods has been either caused 
or effected by an ever fuller grasp of the nature of 



W. T. HARRIS AND G. STANLEY HALL 277 

childhood and youth, to serve which is the task of 
education. With Comenius and other pedagogical 
writers who followed him, however, the study was 
individual, and knowledge remained at best intuition. 
Limited observations were too often made the basis 
of sweeping and one-sided generalizations. The sys- 
tematizations attempted were mainly in the direction 
of deductive doctrination, but not of inductive syn- 
thesis of facts. These facts cannot be gathered and 
established from any individual experiences, however 
true and penetrating they may be, but only from the 
universal experience and experiments of the race, 
past and present. For the inductive synthesis of all 
the facts concerning the nature of childhood and 
youth, which can possibly be gathered and established 
from all sources, we are indebted to the so-called 
child-study movement. It calls to its aid animal 
psychology, anthropology, and medical science as 
well as all the branches of human psychology and 
physiology. It not only avails itself of the anthol- 
ogy of folklore, myths, nursery stories, and even 
superstitions, but also of the experience and observa- 
tion of individuals, great and small. The uniqueness 
of the movement consists not only ' ' in the new direc- 
tion and focalization of many scientific departments 
and methods upon one object, some of which have 
never before had even this bond of union," but also 
in the intimate contact, understanding, and mutual 
helpfulness into which it has brought experts and 
laymen, academic investigators, and practical work- 



278 MODERN EDUCATORS 

ers. As the originator and the foremost leader of this 
movement stands Dr. Hall. In him America has first 
produced a pedagogic writer whose originality is 
l^eculiarly her own, and whose influence has extended 
far beyond the borders of the land. The new peda- 
gogic movement which Dr. Hall represents has a 
philosophic basis in '' genetic psychology,'^ which 
sees the essence of psyche in its process of becoming. 
It has been subject to the course of evolution as or- 
ganic matters have been. The human soul is merely 
a sort of '^ a species or a stage of evolution " in the 
soul kingdom; it is " one of the many types in the 
world," and " at best it may be a transition from a 
lower to a higher race to be evolved later " (1 : vol. ii, 
p. 62) . So our soul life extends far back to the begin- 
ning of organic life, and inherits in its pedigree the 
stored results of prehuman and human experience. 
Education is to unfold all these latencies in the indi- 
vidual and the race to their maximal maturity and 
strength. As a process considered as internally taking 
place, it is nothing else than human evolution; as a 
force or forces tending to growth, it is " almost as 
broad as what biology calls environment "—a much 
wider conception than instruction and discipline. 

According to the genetic view of soul, conscious- 
ness is a late product in the evolution of the soul 
kingdom, and thus constitutes only a small and yet 
unstable upper story of our psychic structure. Thus 
we must seek " the bearer of mental heredity " in 
the larger and older basal structure of the soul, 



W. T. HARRIS AND G. STANLEY HALL 279 

namely, in the motor habits, feelings, instincts, im- 
pulses, and intuitions— which constitute the uncon- 
scious part of our soul. It follows, then, that to 
secure a full and unhindered unfolding of this uncon- 
scious basal part of our soul is the first concern of 
education. Unless built on this foundation rock, 
which is coextensive with the history of animal and 
human evolution, the superstructure will not stand 
firm and secure. So Dr. Hall stands as a vigorous 
protestant against the ultra-intellectualistic tendency 
of prevailing education which neglects the culture of 
motor habits, of instincts, and of emotions and pleads 
for the cultivation of the heart as well as the head. 

First, he is an ardent apostle of the education of 
and through muscle, the growing recognition of which 
has been one of the most conspicuous and hopeful 
tendencies of educational progress in recent years. 
" Muscles are the vehicles of habituation, imitation, 
obedience, character, and even of manners and cus- 
toms. . . . Skill, endurance, and perseverance may 
almost be called muscular virtues, and fatigue, velle- 
ity, caprice, ennui, restlessness, lack of control, and 
poise, muscular faults " (1 : vol. i, p. 132). Thus the 
basis of character building must be laid in motor 
training; will culture is essentially muscle culture. 
Yet muscles are not only the organs of will, but also 
of feeling and thought. Throughout animal and 
human evolution, the development of intelligence 
went together with that of the structure and func- 
tion of muscles, and every change in our emotional 



280 MODERN EDUCATORS 

life is accompanied by change in internal or external 
muscles of the body. 

The first care in muscle culture must be to secure 
abundance and diversity of kinetic energy. '^ Here, 
as everywhere, the rule holds that powers themselves 
must be unfolded before the ability to check or even 
use them can develop " (1: vol. i, p. 161). The vig- 
orous spontaneity of sporadic movements in young 
children should be cherished instead of suppressed. 
The coordination of these purposeless activities into 
higher compounds of habits should come only slowly 
and gradually, or else it will cause either atrophy or 
disease of motor function. The natural evolutionary 
course of muscular development has been from the 
fundamental to the accessory; and early childhood 
is the period for the development of larger basal 
muscles. Any fine work requiring accuracy, taxing 
the tiny accessory muscles, either of the eyes, of the 
tongue, or of the fingers should not be exacted. Train- 
ing of the accessory muscles ought to come between 
the ages of eight and twelve. This is preeminently 
the period for drill, for mechanization. 

Puberty is the stage of ill-balanced transition. The 
motor coordinations are lost for a moment, all the 
ways of awkwardness, mannerisms, and semi-impera- 
tive acts manifest themselves as a result. '' This is 
again the age of the basal— e. g., hill-climbing muscles 
of leg and back and shoulder work, and of the yet 
more fundamental heart, lung, and chest muscles " 
(1: vol. i, p. 165). As during early childhood, now 



W. T. HARRIS AND G. STANLEY HALL 281 

the danger is overemphasis upon the activities of 
accessory muscles and overprecision. Now, again, 
book-studies, class-lessons may become an evil. They 
constitute " not a liberal, power-generating, but a 
highly and prematurely specialized, narrowing and 
weakening education, unless offset by safeguards bet- 
ter than any system of gymnastics, which is at best 
artificial and exaggerated " (1: vol. i, p. 165). 

For Dr. Hall, play presents the ideal type of ex- 
ercise ; he, like Froebel, spares no words of praise for 
its merits. According to him, in play we uncon- 
sciously rehearse the motor experience of the race. 
The motor habits won by the long history of toil and 
pain, elaborated in the life-and-death struggle for 
existence, now reappear in us by impulse, as spon- 
taneity and joy. And '' pleasure is always exactly 
proportional to the directness and force of the cur- 
rent of heredity *' (1: vol. i, p. 206). It is, there- 
fore, his opinion that we should direct the exercise 
of the young to these old basal activities handed down 
from the distant past, which have built up the intel- 
lect and character as well as the physique of the race, 
rather than insist upon those arbitrary systems and 
methods invented to form a symmetrical body accord- 
ing to our ideas. He thinks that ' ' education perhaps 
should really begin with directing childish sports 
aright " (1: vol. i, p. 231). 

Dr. Hall sees in industrial training a motor educa- 
tion of more psychic impulsion and generic ground 

than pure manual training artificially designed. 
19 



282 MODERN EDUCATORS 

Adolescence is the golden period for it. '* Industry 
has determined the nature and trend of muscular de- 
velopment, and youth who have pets, till the soil, 
build, manufacture, use tools, and master elementary 
processes and skills, are most truly repeating the his- 
tory of the race. This, too, lays the best foundation 
for intellectual careers. The study of pure science 
as well as a higher technology follows rather than 
precedes this '^ (1: vol. i, p. 174). The danger here 
that should be guarded against is its tendency to nar- 
row exclusiveness and too early specialization. Health 
and free development of body as well as of mind are 
apt to be sacrificed. However, utility is naturally its 
essential aim, and maximal efficiency of productive 
power is the standard of success; it ought to fit the 
pupil for the struggle of life. Such '' struggle-for- 
lifeurs," sturdy in arms and spirit, not " flabby, 
undeveloped, anjemic, easy-living city youth," is the 
demand of modern America. Real industrial training 
is a man-making education. 

Thus, according to Dr. Hall, character is to be built 
not upon Herbart's coherent and compact system 
of ideas, but upon vigorous, well-developed, and per- 
fectly coordinated muscles. However, this is not, of 
course, the whole of moral training. Will is to be 
made moral, not only to be strong and healthy. This 
moralization of will is the task of discipline. 

Not unlike Dr. Harris, but more in the spirit of 
the father of English pedagogy, lie posits that about 
the only duty of small children is habitual and prompt 



AV. T. HARRIS AND G. STANLEY HALL 283 

obedience. Nothing like the reasoning ground of con- 
duct, or the free self-determination of will, for them ; 
the extent of authority felt, revered, and depended 
upon is the measure of success. He thinks that " if 
our love is deep, obedience is an instinct if not a re- 
ligion ^' for the child: '' as the plant grows toward 
light, so they unfold in the direction of our wishes, 
felt as by divination '' (2: p. 332). 

Dr. Hall sees in the present trend of education more 
danger of becoming oversentimental than of falling 
into brutality ; so he recommends ' ' drastic reconstruc- 
tions " of will, when habituation does not, as should 
be expected, run smoothly. He likens the corporal 
punishment to a sword in its scabbard: " it may be 
reserved, but should not get so rusted that it cannot 
be drawn on occasion ''; and believes that " will cul- 
ture for boys is rarely as thorough as it should be 
without more or less flogging " (2: pp. 338-339). 

External authority, however, must find response in 
the intellectual motivation of the child as it grows, 
else it can avail but little educationally. " The 
various stimuli of discipline are to enforce the higher 
though weaker insights which the child has already 
unfolded, rather than to engraft entirely unintuited 
good," and '' we must not forget that even morality 
is relative, and is one thing for adults and quite 
often another for children " (2: p. 335). 

The transition from the morality of authority and 
coercion to that of reason and free will maj^ be bridged 
by simple, practical instructions. These are to be 



284 MODEliN EDUCATORS 

given in the form of a few well-chosen mottoes, prov- 
erbs, maxims, always clear cut, copiously illustrated, 
and well familiarized. Philosophic morality shouhl 
be deprecated botli for children and teachers. Every 
road of human activity leads to the great Rome 
of character. For Dr. Hall, " the highest and also 
immediate practical method of moral training " 
lies in intellectual work, concentrated, sustained, and 
inspirited. Mental work, in order to be serviceable 
to the production of healthy manhood, should be " a 
series of acts, or living thoughts and not words." 
The lack of volitional initiative and reaction in the 
current form of mental training has caused " the 
general paralysis of cultured intellect." Learning 
should be changed from a mere reception, as it is 
now, into the putting forth of self -activity. "It is 
the way and not the goal, the work and not the prod- 
uct, the acquiring and not the acquisition, that edu- 
cates will and character" (2: jd. 3-i6). Then the 
spirit of thoroughness is the requisite for the intel- 
lectual training that at the same time trains the will. 
" Smattering is dissipation of energy. Only great, 
concentrated and prolonged efforts in one direction 
really train the mind, because only they train the will 
beneath it " (2: p. 349). This is one of the educa- 
tive forces of specialization. 

To turn now to intellectual culture. In Dr. Hall's 
opinion, the school stands essentially for the pro- 
longation of human infanc}^ and adolescence, and 
not so much for the initiation of the immature gen- 



AV. T. HARRIS AND G. STANLEY HALL 285 

eration into the world of grown-ups; it means " the 
perpetuation of the primgeval paradise created before 
the struggle for existence began " (8: p. 475). 

From this view-point the kindergarten needs re- 
construction. Here '' a pound of health, growth, 
heredity is worth a ton of instruction. . . . Now the 
body needs most attention and the soul least " (8: p. 
476). Not in the oversystematized and oversymbol- 
ized " occupations " and " games," but in free, nat- 
ural play children must have their true life. " Imi- 
tation should have a far larger scope " than at 
present, and precocious exercise of reasoning and 
thinking a less. '' Part of the cult here should be 
idleness and the intermediate state of reverie " (8: 
p. 476). 

At eight or nine the child enters a new period, last- 
ing until puberty. The bodily growth is relatively at 
rest, but vitality, activity, and the power to resist 
disease and fatigue show an enormous increase. The 
age of reason is only dawning, and imitation is yet a 
strong motive power. '^ Demonstrate, show, envis- 
age, ' ' and not ' ^ explain " is to be the motto. ' ' Chil- 
dren comprehend much and very rapidly if we can 
only refrain from explaining, but this slows down in- 
tuition, tends to make casuists and prigs, and to en- 
feeble the ultimate vigor of reason. It is the age of 
little method and much matter " (1: vol. ii, p. 452). 
A beginning in the fundamentals of all learning and 
skill which need technicalities is to be made ; con- 
stant drill in these will form a stable automatic basis 



286 MODERN EDUCATORS 

of mind. The qualities required of tlie teacher here 
are not so much those of the instructor as of '' the 
captain of the boy's gang." He or she is to be able 
to lead, drive, and discipline more than to teach ' ' the 
human colt, which is by nature in some sense the 
wildest of all wild animals." 

But with the teens there must come a total change 
in the mode of education. '^ Powers and faculties, 
essentially nonexistent before, are now born, and of 
all the older impulses and instincts some are reen- 
forced and greatly developed, while others are sub- 
dued, so that new relations are established and the ego 
finds a new center " (1 : vol. ii,p.70). The child in the 
preceding period was well adjusted to his environ- 
ment; his development was proportionate and rela- 
tively slow; and he lived content with himself in his 
own child world. He thus '' represents probably an 
old and relatively perfected stage of race maturity ' ' ; 
which '' stands for a long-continued one, a terminal 
stage of luiman development at some post-simian 
point " (1: vol. ii, p. 71). But with the advent of 
adolescence, this peaceful, primeval paradise is lost 
forever. The youth with its all-sided mobilization 
and with its intense enthusiasm enters into the con- 
quest of a higher kingdom of manhood. The indi- 
vidual is now recapitulating a long viaticum of 
ascent which the race had to make with heat and 
ferment, with fight and defeat, before it evolved its 
historic stage of civilization. " Early adolescence is 
thus the infancy of man's higher nature, when he 



AV. T. HARRIS AND G. STANLEY HALL 287 

receives from the great all-mother his last capital of 
energy and evolutionary momentum '' (1: vol. ii, p. 
71). ^' It is the most critical stage of life, because 
failure to mount almost always means retrogression, 
degeneracy, or fall" (1: vol. ii, p. 72). Indeed, 
one of the greatest problems of civilization, therefore 
of education, is how to make '^ the earlier stages of 
adolescence ever surer and safer, and its later possi- 
bilities ever greater and prolonged." 

Coercion and prescription can be no longer imposed 
without serious injuries. '' Individuality must have 
a longer tether " (1: vol. ii, p. 453). This is pre- 
eminently the period of variation, which means noth- 
ing else than evolution. Each of the impulses, in- 
stincts, and dispositions, which represent the voices of 
bygone generations, shall have a free struggle for 
expression. " Its function is to stimulate the next 
higher power that can only thus be provoked to de- 
velopment, in order to direct, repress, or supersede 
it." So-called lower faculties or instincts, if arti- 
ficially and prematurely suppressed, may " break out 
well on in adult life, falsetto notes mingling with 
manly base as strange puerilities" (1: vol. ii, pp. 
89-90). 

The educator is now essentially to be a teacher, not 
a drillmaster ; he must know plenty and teach plenty ; 
he must be generous and indulgent in his giving, and 
not exacting in requiring returns from the pupil. 
^' The teacher's cue is now to graft the soul all over 
with buds and scions, and not to try to gather a 



288 MODERN EDUCATORS 

harvest" (8: p. 485). Recitation and examination 
methods are harmful both to the intellect and the 
will. Morselizing the knowledge and insisting upon 
methodical steps starve the adolescent soul, which, 
being " all insight and receptivity," wants to devour 
great wholes. 

Dr. Hall makes an ardent plea for the independence 
of the high school from the control of the higher 
institutions, making it ^' the peoples' college," com- 
plete in itself. It stands to meet peculiar needs of 
the unique stage of life, with a distinct function of 
its own. It " should primarily fit for nothing, but 
exploit and develop to the utmost all the powers " 
(1: vol. ii, p. 525). 

The nineteenth year in boys marks an epoch. It is 
a time for adjustment and rest after the rank growth. 
It is a period of systematic rounding up, following 
the all-sided mobilization. The liberal education of the 
college is provided here, for those who are favored 
by circumstances. It is to be an essentially cultural 
and humanistic institution, broadly propaedeutic and 
preparatory to the career of mature manhood. There- 
fore, college ^' should stand for extensive more than 
intensive study. ... It implies knowing something of 
everything more than everything of something " (1: 
vol. ii, p. 528). Not scientific or professional acquire- 
ment, still less mastery, but training and discipline 
of mind is the aim. The teacher '' should address 
his efforts more to the upper and less to the lower 
half of his class, forage widely and incessantly, and 



W. T. HARRIS AND G. STANLEY HALL 289 

bring everything within reach in his field to them. 
. . . Mental awakening should be his goal, and he 
should inspire them to read for pleasure, for the only 
real measure of culture is the number and kinds of 
things done for the love of them. . . . The test of 
success here is the number of interests and the in- 
tensity of curiosity aroused far more than the size of 
the body of knowledge laid away in the memory " 
(1: vol. ii, p. 530). 

As to university education, the fundamental no- 
tions of Dr. Hall are a clearer and more definite state- 
ment of those of Bacon and Fichte, which the mod- 
ern advancement of science and his own experience 
as a university president have enabled him to make. 
The university stands chiefly for specialization in 
scholarship. Its inspiration is the conquest of truth, 
extension of the domain of human knowledge, and 
consequently of human power. Its education is in 
and for and by a free, though at first guided and 
assisted, investigation. Not merely accumulating 
what has already been found and refined, but digging 
out yet undiscovered mines of facts and laws, is its 
chief task. The university in this sense is the cul- 
mination of adolescent education. It cultivates in 
the youth the creative ability which does not, like 
the mere carrying capacity, weigh down the posses- 
sor; the sense of I-can-do-something-important, which 
gives one confidence and poise, an enthusiasm which 
is not fanatic, a genuine attitude of respect, even of 
reverence for the efforts of all seekers for truth. It 



290 MODERN EDUCATORS 

calls forth '' truthfulness, integrity, morality in every 
direction, self-sacrifice, and what perhaps includes 
them all, enthusiasm for the highest ideals of living 
and thinking,^' by laying demands upon these best 
qualities in man's character. 

The right of a larger manhood has been the claim 
of all the educational reformers deserving the name. 
The unfolding of the total man has been their re- 
peated assertion. But they have always fallen into 
one or another form of one-sidedness — mainly on ac- 
count of their narrow conception of the human soul. 
Here comes another renovator with his " new psy- 
chology," which he believes " will surely take the 
place of the older concepts of soul, as the theory of 
evolution has taken the place of those of life," and 
claims for it the potency of bringing about a total 
reconstruction of our educational spirit and methods. 
His own pedagogy is a still incomplete, unfinished, 
and ever-enlarging construction. But he opens the 
way for the philosophy of education, which is to be 
" one with that of history and of life," and predicts 
with the zeal and vision of a prophet its future 
position : 

" If evolution is true, the time will come, as cer- 
tainly as the sun will rise to-morrow, when it (peda- 
gogy) will be the basis of a new harmony, unity, and 
organization of the sciences, and instead of being the 
Cinderella in their circle, it will supply the criterion 
by which they are all judged; it will grade and eval- 
uate each product of culture " (4: p. 383). 



W. T. HARRIS AND G. STANLEY HALL 291 



REFERENCES 

1. Harris, William Torrey. Report of the Subcom- 

mittee on the Correlation of Studies in Elementary 
Education. Educational Review, Vol. IX, March, 
1895, pp. 230-289. 

2. Social Culture in the Form of Education and 

Religion. Proceedings of International Congress of 
Arts and Sciences. Houghton & IMifHin Co., New- 
York and Boston, 1907. Vol. VIII, pp. 1-16. 

3. Psychologic Foundations of Education ; an Attempt 

to Show the Genesis of the Higher Faculties of the 
Mind. (International Education Series.) Appleton, 
New York, 1894. 400 pages. 

4. Lectures on the Philosophy of Education. Johns 

Hopkins University Studies in Historical and 
Political Science. Supplementary notes. Eleventh 
series, 1893, pp. 269-277. 

5. Prescription, its Province in Education, Proceed- 
ings of American Institute of Instruction, 1871, jjp. 
127-151. 

6. Vocation versus Culture. Proceedings of American 

Institute of Instruction, 1891, pp. 1-20. 

7. Moral Education in the Common Schools. Pro- 
ceedings of American Institute of Instruction, 1884. 
Lectures, pp. 29-46. 

8. The Relation of School Discipline to Moral Educa- 
tion. Herbartian Year Book, No. 3, 1897, pp. 58-72. 

9. Relation of Women to the Trades and Professions. 

Educational Review, October, 1900, Vol. XX, pp. 
217-229. 

10. The Use of Higher Education. Educational Review, 

September, 1898, Vol. XVI, pp. 147-161. 



292 MODERN EDUCATORS 

11. Educational Policy for Our New Possessions. Edu- 
cational Review, September, 1899, Vol. XVIII, pp. 
105-118. 

12. The Future of the Normal School. Educational 

Review, January, 1899, Vol. XVII, pp. 1-15. 

13. How the School Strengthens the Individuality of 

the Pupil. Educational Review, October, 1902, Vol. 
XXIV, pp. 228-237. 

14. Prof. John Dewey's Doctrine as Related to Will. Educa- 

tional Review, May, 1890, Vol. XI, pp. 486-493. 

REFERENCES 

1. Hall, Granville Stanley. Adolescence; its Psychol- 

ogy and its Relations to Physiology, Anthropology, 
Sociology, Sex, Crime, Religion. Appleton, New 
York, 1905. 2 vols. 

2. Youth ; its Education, Regimen, and Hygiene. 

Appleton, New York, 1906. 369 pages. 

3. and Some of his Pupils. Aspects of Child Life and 

Education. Ginn & Co., Boston, 1907. 326 pages. 

4. • What is Pedagogy? Pedagogical Seminary, De- 
cember, 1905. Vol. XII, pp. 375-383. 

5. Confessions of a Psychologist. Pedagogical Seminary y 

March, 1901. Vol. VIII, pp. 92-143. 

6. Moral and Religious Training of Children and 

Adolescents. Pedagogical Seminary, June, 1891, pp. 
196-210. 

7. Moral Education and Will Ti-aining. Pedagogical 

Seminary, June, 1892, pp. 72-98. 

8. The Ideal School, as Based on Child Study. Pro- 
ceedings of National Education Association, 1901, 
pp. 475-488. (Also in Forum, September, 1901, 
Vol XXXII, pp. 24-39.) 



W. T. IIAinilS AND G. STANLEY HALL 293 

9. The Hi^s;h School or the People's College versus the 

Fitting School. Proceedings of National Education 
Association, 1902. (Also in Pedagogical Seminary 
March, 1902, Vol. IX, pp. 63-73.) 

10. What is Research in a University Sense and How 

]\[ay it P>est be Promoted? Pedagogical Seminary, 
March, 1902, Vol. IX, i3p. 74-80. 

11. Pedagogy of History. Pedagogical Seminary, Sep- 
tember, 1905, Vol. XII, pp. 339-349. 

12. How to Teach Reading and What to Read in School. 

Heath & Co., Boston, 1890. 40 pages. 

13. Coeducation in the High School. Proceedings of 

National Education Association, 1903, pp. 446- 
460. 

14. The Question of Coeducation. Munsey, February, 

1906. Vol. XXXIV, pp. 588-592. (Also in Bulletin 
of American Academy of Medicine, October, 1906, 
Vol. VII, pp. 653-656.) 

15. RussEL, Elias Harlow. Biographical Sketch of Presi- 

dent Hall. (In American Journal of Insanity^ 
October, 1896, Vol. LIII, pp. 317-322.) 



i 



INDEX 



Adolescence, 28, 82-89, 109- 
110, 262-264, 280-282, 
284, 286-290. 

Alsted, 19. 

Andrea, 19. 

Arithmetic, 135, 178. 

Association, 52, 206. 

Athenian education, 2-3. 

Attention, 50-51, 129, 208- 
209, 233, 255. 

Bacon, 12-15. 

mentioned, 18, 30, 38, 39, 52, 
54, 223, 225, 226, 289. 

on higher education, 15. 

on knowledge, 12-14. 
Barnard, quoted, 146. 
Basedow, 93-98. 

fundamental principles of di- 
dactics, 96-97. 

ideal education, 95. 

influence of, 94, 97-98. 

language instruction, 95-96. 

mentioned, 103, 105, 113, 
139. 

"Philalethie." 94. 

physical culture, 95-96. 
Bible, 8, 27. 

Boardman, quoted, 189-190. 
Bodily faculty, A. B. C. of, 151. 



Boyhood, 28, 77-82, 179-186, 
253-261, 270-274, 280, 
283-286. 
Browning, on Locke, 38. 
on Rousseau, 61. 

Campanella, 19. 
Carlyle, on Rousseau, 59, 60. 
Character. See Moral Training. 
Child-study movement, 277- 

278. 
Childhood, 28, 71-77, 133- 

137, 174-179, 252-253, 

270, 280, 282-283, 285. 
early, 28, 69-71, 173-174, 

252. 
Chinese, compared with Greeks, 

1. 
Christianity, influence of, on 

education, 3-12. 
Church, education by, 4-5. 

service of Catholic, 7. 
Cicero, quoted, 3. 
Circle of thought, 206. 
Civilization and education, 

268-269. 
Classics, 5, 10, 14, 26, 39, 48- 

49, 94, 162, 225, 228, 

257. 
Coeducation, 157, 293. 



295 



206 



INDEX 



Comenius, 18-31. 

compared with Locke. See 

Locke, 
early education advocated, 

22-24. 
existing schools criticised* 

24-26. 
"Great Didactic," 20, 29, 35. 
ideal of education, 20-21, 29, 

35. 
mentioned, 68, 89, 94, 96, 
119-120, 138, 139, 194, 
276-277. 
on discipline, 25-26. 
on function of school, 24. 
on method, 26-28. 
on necessity of education, 

21-22. 
on necessity of school. 23-24. 
on school system, 28. 
on subject matter, 26. 
"Orbis Pictus," 96. 
Compayre, on Froebel, 192- 
193. 
on Greek influence on edu- 
cation, 1. 
on Luther, 7. 
Comte, 230. 

Concentration-center, 213-214. 
Cooperation, 155-156, 162-163, 

216. 
Corporal punishment, 43-44, 

283. 
Cosmopolitanism, 110. 
Culture stages, 213-214. 
Curiosity, 50, 253. 

Dancing, 48. 

Davidson, on Rousseau, 61. 



Developmental stages, 68-69, 
124, 169, 171-173, 213, 
251-252. 

Discipline, 10, 25-26, 42-46, 
102-103, 152, 214-215, 
234-236, 250-251, 259- 
260, 270-272, 282-283. 
See also Moral Train- 
ing. 

Domestic work, 12, 129-130, 
136-137, 178-179, 183- 
184. 

Drawing, 177-178. 

Education, academic, 15, 159- 
164, 239-240. 

Athenian, 2-3. 

by nature, 64-66. 

early, 22-23, 69-77, 101-103, 
133-137, 173-179, 252- 
253, 270, 280, 282-283, 
285. 

economic, 155-157. 

efferent, 181-184. 

elementary, 133-137, 272- 
274. 

in middle ages, 4-5. 

industrial, 137-139, 281- 
282. 

intellectual, 10, 15, 25-28, 
48-54, 66-68, 72-74, 76- 
77, 79-82, 87, 88, 95-96, 
104-106, 133-136, 148- 
151, 159-164, 174, 178, 
179, 180-181, 184, 185, 
206-214, 225-233, 239- 
240, 254-259, 268, 272- 
275, 284-290. 

lil)eral, 288. 



INDEX 



297 



Education, man-making, 282. 
moral, 10, 25, 42-46, 83-89, 
106-110, 112-113, 132, 
136-137, 152-155, 181- 

182, 205-207, 214-215, 
236-238, 250-251, 259- 
261, 270-272, 279, 282- 
284. 

national, 144. 

of adolescents, 28, 82-89, 
109-110, 262-264, 280- 
282, 284, 286-290. 

of boys, 28, 77-82, 179-186, 
253-261, 270-274, 280, 
283-286. 

physical, 1, 10, 40-41, 54, 
65, 69, 71-75, 101, 103- 
104, 151, 173-174, 182- 

183, 236-238, 280-281. 
private, 55-56, 217. See also 

Home Training, 
"psychologizing," 124. 
public, 2-3, 55-56, 101, 144, 

216-217, 238-243, 268. 
religious, 83, 110-113, 158- 

159, 260-261. 
Roman, 3. 
Spartan, 2-3. 
uniform, opposed, 3, 240- 

243. 
universal, advocated by Co- 

menius, 22. 
university, 15, 161-164,289- 

290. 
Educational ideals, 1-3, 4, 5, 

6-7, 11-12, 15, 21, 24, 

40, 63, 95, 99-100, 122, 

146-147, 169, 203, 227, 

250-251, 268, 278. 
20 



Emotion, 63, 84-85, 87, 128- 
129, 133, 153-154, 182, 
204, 239, 261, 278. 

Emulation, 23, 55, 109. 

Evolutionary ideas, 169-170, 
213, 230-232, 248-249, 
278-279, 290. 

Examination, 163, 288. 

Fairy tales, 184-185, 213. 
Family. See Home Training. 
Fichte, 143-164. 

"Addresses to the German 
Nation," 145. 

"Aphorisms on Education," 
147. 

"Characteristics of the Pres- 
ent Age," 152 

first essentials of new educa- 
tion, 152. 

mentioned, 113, 195, 245, 
246, 248, 259, 263, 289. 

on moral training, 152-155. 

on academic education, 159- 
164. 

on coeducation, 157. 

on home, 154-155. 

on manual work, 156. 

oh Pestalozzi, 140. 

on religious education, 158- 
159. 

on university education, 161- 
164. 

plan of an educational com- 
munity, 154-157. 
Formal steps of instruction, 

209. 
Formative instinct, 183-184. 
Froebel, 166-196. 



298 



INDEX 



Froebel, " Education of Man," 
168, 193. 

evolutionary idea of educa- 
tion, 169-170. 

mentioned, 199, 200, 250, 
258. 

on arithmetic, 178. 

on education of boys, 179- 
186. 

on domestic work, 178-179, 
182, 183-184. 

on drawing, 177-178. 

on early education, 173-179. 

on efferent education, 181- 
184. 

on harmonious develop- 
ment, 171. 

on ideal of education, 169. 

on kindergarten, 180-181, 
186-192. 

on mathematics, 178. 

on play, 174-175, 182-183. 

on rhythm, 176. 

on school, 181. 

on songs, 185-186. 

on speech, 174, 175-176, 179- 
180. 

on stories, 184-185. 

pedagogy of, characterized, 
166-168, 192-196. 

"Prospectus of an institu- 
tion for the Training of 
Nurses and Educators of 
Children," 190. 

Grammar, 54, 228, 257, 273. 
Genetic psychology, 278. 
Greek, language and culture, 
14, 39, 162, 257. 



Greek ideals of education, 1-3. 
Gymnastics, 151, 237, 281. 

Habit, 41, 49, 95, 101, 102- 
103, 105, 153-154, 157, 
178, 270-271, 279. 
Hall, G. Stanley, 276-290. 

on adolescence, 282, 283, 
286, 288. 

on college education, 288- 
289. 

on discipline, 282-283. 

on education of boys, 282- 
283, 285-286. 

on Froebel, 193. 

on industrial education, 281- 
282. 

on intellectual education, 
284-290. 

on kindergarten, 285. 

on moral training, 279, 282- 
284. 

on motor training, 279-282. 

on play, 281. 

on teachers, 286, 287-289. 

on university education, 289- 
290. 

on harmonious develop- 
ment, 287. 

pedagogy of, characterized, 
278-279, 290. 

psychology of, 278-279. 
Harmonious development, 1, 
12, 21, 24, 40, 71, 94-95, 
105, 121-123, 130-131, 
136-137, 157, 170-172, 
206-208, 227, 280, 287- 
288. 
Harnisch, on Pestalozzi, 139. 



INDEX 



299 



Harris, William T., 267-276. 
on elementary education, 

273-274. 
on higher education, 274. 
on intellectual education, 

268, 269, 272-275. 
on manual training, 273. 
on moral training, 270-272. 
on school, 268, 271. • 
pedagogy of, characterized, 

267-268, 276. 
school and home compared, 

271-272. 
subject-matter, 272-273. 
Hegel, 245-266. 

"Ages of Man," 251. 
education defined by, 248- 

251. 
mentioned, 267-268. 
on adolescence, 262-264. 
on classics, 257. 
on early education, 252-253. 
on education of boys, 253- 

261. 
on grammar, 257. 
on intellectual education, 

254-259. 
on logic, 257. 
on manhood, 264. 
on mathematics, 257, 259. 
on memory, 256. 
on moral training, 250-251, 

259-261. 
on old age, 265. 
on school, 258-259. 
on subject-matter, 257-258. 
pedagogy of, characterized, 

245-248, 265-266. 
Heinemann, quoted, 189. 



Herbart, 199-219. 
end of education, 203. 
mentioned, 119, 248, 265. 
on attention, 208-209. 
on discipline, 214-215. 
on home training, 216-217. 
on instruction, 206-214. 
on interest, 206-209. 
on moral training, 205-207, 

214-215. 
on state education, 216-217. 
pedagogy of, characterized, 

199-203, 215-216. 
psychology of, 203-205, 218- 
219. 
Heredity, 170-171, 278-279, 
281, 282, 285, 286-287. 
Herr von Arnswald, quoted, 

188. 
High school, 288. 
Higher education, 15, 28, 161- 

164, 274, 288-290. 
Home training, 3, 8, 12, 23, 55- 
56, 70, 100-101, 124- 
137, 155, 178-179, 182, 
183, 184, 187-188, 216- 
217, 241, 261, 268, 271. 
Honor, 45. 
Hotho, quoted, 246. 
Humanism, 5-6. 

Infant schools, 188. 
Institutions, private, 217. 
Instruction. See Learning, 
Intellectual Education, 
and Subject-Matter. 
analytic, 210-211. 
presentative, 210. 
synthetic, 211-212. 



300 



INDEX 



Interest, 27, 50, 51, 77-81, 104- 
105, 127, 147, 206-209, 
233, 253-254, 255, 208- 
269, 289. See also Niitii- 
ral Development, Spon- 
taneous Activity. 

Jahn, 96, 151. 

Kant, 98-114. 

compared with Locke, 102- 

103. 
compared with Rousseau, 

98-99. 
mentioned, 41, 143-144, 153- 

154, 169, 200-203, 257. 
on adolescence, 109. 
on discipline, 102-103. 
on emulation, 109-110. 
on home training, 100-101. 
on ideal of education, 99- 

100. 
on manners, 106. 
on mental culture, 104-106. 
on moral education, 100- 

110, 112-113. 
on physical culture, 103- 

104. 
on play, 104-105. 
on religious education, 110- 

113. 
on sex pedagogy, 109-110. 
on state education, 110. 
on sympathy, 108-109. 
pedagogy of, characterized, 

98-99. 
Kindergarten, 28, 180, 186- 

192, 258, 285. 
Kriisi, on Pestalozzi, 116. 



La Chalotais, 93. 
Language, Bible as text-book 
of, 8. 
instruction in, 10, 28, 54, 73, 
95, 96, 151, 162, 176, 
212, 228, 257, 272-273. 
See also Speech and Ver- 
nacular. 
Laurie, on Comenius, 19. 

on Locke, 37. 
Learning, discussed by Bacon, 
12-15. 
Comenius, 25-28. 
Fichte, 147-151, 162-164. 
Froebel, 174, 181. 
Hall, 284-290. 
Harris, 268-270, 272-275. 
Hegel, 253-258. 
Herbart, 206-212. 
Kant, 104-106. 
Locke, 48-55. 
Pestalozzi, 131-137. 
Rousseau, 65-68, 71-82, 

87, 88. 
Spencer, 225-228, 230- 
233. 
Leibnitz, on Locke, 37. 
Locke, 35-56. 

compared with Comenius, 

35-38, 54-56. 
compared with Kant, 102- 

103. 
influence on English educa- 
tion, 38. 
mentioned, 59, 89, 94, 96, 
99, 113, 139, 203, 224, 
237. 
on attention and association, 
50-52. 



INDEX 



301 



Locke, on dancing, 48. 

on discipline, 42-45. 

on example and company, 
45-46. 

on Greek, 39. 

on honor, 44-45. 

on learning, 48-55. 

on logic, 52. 

on manners, 47-48. 

on mathematics, 52. 

on memory, 52-53. 

on play instinct, 42-43. 

on principles of hygiene, 40- 
41. 

on punishment, 43-44. 

on subject-matter, 54. 

psychology of, 41-42, 52-53. 
Logic, 52, 135, 257. 
Luther, 7-12. 

mentioned, 19, 145, 146. 

on discipline, 9-10. 

on home training, 8, 10, 12. 

on relation of religion and 
education, 8-9. 

on school, 9-10, 12. 

on subject-matter, 10, 12. 

on teachers, 9-11. 

Madame de Stael, on Rousseau, 

59-60. 
Mager, on Pestalozzi, 120. 
Manhood, 264. 

Manners, 47-48, 106, 270-271. 
Manual training, 12, 54, 88, 94- 

95, 136-139, 155-157, 

162, 168, 183-184, 273, 

281. 
Marenholz-Biilow, on Froebel, 

187. 



Mathematics, 52, 178, 257. 

Memory, 52-53, 256. 

Method, 26-28, 42, 242, 275. 

Military drill, 258. 

Montaigne, 39, 40. 

Mother, 125-129, 134, 187-188, 
190, 261, 270. See also 
Parents. 

Morley, on Rousseau, 62. 

Motor training, 71-72, 74-75, 
95-96, 103-104, 129, 
136-139, 151, 155-157, 
162, 168, 173-179, 181- 
184, 188, 237-238, 258, 
279-282. 

Munroe, on Froebel, 166, 192. 

Muscles. See Motor Training. 

Music. See Songs. 

Natural development, 122- 
124, 229-231. See also 
Spontaneous Activity. 

Nature, 13, 27, 62-64. 

Niemeyer, on "Emile," 61. 

Parents, 10, 23, 43, 46, 69- 
70, 100-101, 107, 129, 
133, 171, 172, 179, 189, 
216-217, 228, 234, 235, 
242-243, 250, 261. See 
also Home Training and 
Mother. 

Perception of A. B. C. of, 150- 
151, 200. 

Pestalozzi, 116-140. 

"Christopher and Alice," 

125. 
compared with Rousseau, 
124-125. 



302 



IiNDEX 



Pestalozzi, elementary method 

of education, 133-137. 
function of education, 123. 
"How Gertrude Taught Her 

Children," 131. 
* ' Leonard and Gertrude, ' ' 

131. 
mentioned, 149-151, 159, 

169, 190, 194-196, 199- 

201, 218, 223, 229, 234, 

257, 259, 273. 
"New Year's Address," 

121-122. 
on harmonious education, 

121, 123, 136. 
on home, 126-132. 
on ideal of education, 121. 
on industrial education, 137- 

139. 
on moral training, 128-129, 

132, 133. 
on motor training, 136-137, 

138-139. 
on nature's method, 132- 

133. 
pedagogy of, characterized, 

117-120. 
"Swan Song," 132, 133. 
Philanthropium, 94, 96, 98. 
Play, 42-43, 103-105, 174-175, 

182-183, 238, 281. 
Prescription, 254, 269, 270- 

271, 287. 
Protestantism, 6-7. 
Psychology, genetic, 278. 
national, 274-275. 
of Hall, 278-279. 
of Herbart, 203-205. 
of Locke, 41-42, 52-53. 



Puberty, 82-87, 109-110,280- 

281, 286-287. 
Public school versus private 

education, 55-56, 125- 

128,216-217,271-272. 
Punishment, 43-44, 214, 235, 

287. 
Pythagoras, 255. 

Quick, on Froebel, 193. 

Rabelais, 19, 39. 
Ratke, 19. 

Recitation, 275, 288. 
Reformation, 5-7, 11-12, 31. 
Rein, 214. 

on Herbart, 202. 
Religion and education, rela- 
tion of, 8-9. 19. 
Renaissance, 5-6, 11-12. 
Rhythm, 176. 
Roman education, 3. 
Rousseau, 59-90. 
"Emile,"61. 

mentioned, 41, 93-94, 96, 97, 
98-99, 103, 113, 119, 
124, 159, 169, 171, 172, 
186-187, 194, 201, 223, 
229, 235, 250. 261, 267. 
on adolescent education, 87- 

89. 
on book study. 63-68, 72-73. 
on duty of parents, 69-70. 
on early education, 64-67, 

70-71. 
on education by activity, 64, 

67-68, 71-72, 74-75. 
on education by inaction, 
65-66. 



INDEX 



303 



Rousseau, on education by na- 
ture, 63-65, 80. 

on ideal boyhood, 81-82. 

on ideal childhood, 76-77. 

on the origin of intellectual 
interest, 78-79. 

on preadolescent education, 
77-82. 

on puberty, 82-87. 

on science instruction, 66- 
68, 79-81. 

on work interest, 81. 

pedagogy of, characterized, 
59-62, 89-90. 

sex pedagogy, 83-88. 

social settlement antici- 
pated, 88-89. 

stages of natural develop- 
ment, 68-69. 
Rosenkranz, 245. 

Scholars, vocation of, discussed 
byFichte, 160-161, 163- 
164. 

School, 9-10, 12, 24-26, 55-56, 
181, 258, 268, 271, 272, 
284-285. See also teach- 
ers. 

Schneider, on Pestalozzi, 
139. 

Science, instruction in, 66-68, 
79-81, 282. 
value of, 227-228. 

Self-activity, 147-149, 155, 160- 
163, 171, 208, 254, 256, 
269, 273-275. See also 
Spontaneous Activity. 

Self-expression, 174-175, 177. 

Self-instruction, 232-235. 



Sensation, A. B. C. of, 150- 
151. 

Sex pedagogy, 83-88, 109- 

110. 
Silence, 255, 272. 
Social nursery, 188. 
Solger, quoted, 247. 
Songs, 10, 185-186. 
Spartan education, 2-3. 
Speech, 70, 133-135, 151, 174- 
176, 179, 180, 252-253. 
See also Language. 
Spencer, 223-243. 

"Education, intellectual, 

moral, physical," 243. 
mentioned, 267. 
on aim of education, 226- 

227. 
on classics, 225, 228. 
on intellectual education, 

225-233. 
on method, 242. 
on moral training, 233, 236. 
on physical education, 236- 

238. 
on state education, 238-243. 
on value of science, 227- 

228. 
pedagogy of, characterized, 
223-224. 
Spielmann, on Comenius, 30. 

on Herbart, 217-218. 
Spontaneous activity, 170-171, 
180, 188, 192, 280. See 
also Natural Develop- 
ment, Self-activity and 
Self-instruction. 
State education, 2-3, 101, 144, 
216-217, 238-243, 268. 



304 



INDEX 



Stoicism, 3. 
Stories, 184-185. 
Subject-matter, 10, 12, 26, 53- 

54, 208, 227-228, 257- 

258, 272-273. 

Teachers, 9-11, 127-128, 203, 

216, 250, 271. 
Temming, on Kant, 113. 
Text-books, 275. 



Vernacular, 19, 26. 
Vives, 19. 

Work interest, 51, 81, 105, 253- 
254. 

Youth. See Adolescence. 

Ziegler, on Kant, 113. 
Ziller, 213-214. 



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foundation of the first college down to the present day. All 
the larger colleges in each section of the country — their in- 
ception, growth, methods, present position, etc. — are dis- 
cussed fully and accurately, and altogether the work forms 
a complete and authoritative history of the development of 
one of the most important factors in the advancement of the 
nation, the higher education. 

"The President of Western Reserve University, a graduate of Harvard 
thirty years ago, has rendered a good service to the students of education, in 
this country and abroad, by the preparation of an historical volume which is 
full and comprehensive. . . . The supporters of superior education are cer- 
tainly grateful to the author for bringing together such a mass of details on 
this important subject. "—7\ ^w York Evening Post. 

* ' The book has a very distinct character of its own : first, it does not con- 
tain an uninteresting page ; the reader who takes it up is likely to read from 
page to page and from chapter to chapter until he reaches the end. . . . The 
book is conceived and executed in a large and generous spirit, combines 
accuracy and interest in an unusual degree, and is a notable addition to the 
literature of our educational history." — The Dial. 

" This is the first adequate modern book on higher education in America 
that has appeared, and it is also President Thwing's best work. It is good 
history, good literature, and good professional reading.'' 

— Boston yotirnal of Education, 

"A careful and comprehensive history of higher education in America, 
which wfll fill a permanent place in the literature of educational subjects." 

— Boston Evening Transcript, 

" The history is the result of persevering research and careful study. It is 
judiciously arranged and admirably written. Undoubtedly the book will 
immediately take its place as a standard presentation of an important and 
difficult subject." — Cleveland Plain Dealer. 



D. APPLETON AND COMPANY, NEW YORK, 









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